KABUL: With months of back channel talks seemingly yielding results as the Taliban and the US almost coming to fruition with talks of a proposed prisoner transfer earlier in the year, the Taliban on Thursday announced that confidence-building talks with the Americans had been broken off.
The mood for the Americans was further soured as the Afghan president also ordered US troops out of villages, demanding a transition of security from Nato control in 2013.
The announcements from the Islamist militants fighting American troops for over 10 years and Hamid Karzai, Washington's key ally in Kabul, came just days after an unprecedented shooting spree by an American soldier killed 16 civilians.
The fallout overshadowed a two-day visit to Afghanistan by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that was aimed at soothing anger over Sunday's massacre and last month's burning of Qurans at a US base in the war-torn country.
The Taliban made no mention of the killings as it announced the suspension of contacts with US officials in Qatar over a prisoner swap - talks that had built up hopes of a political solution to the war in Afghanistan before US troops leave in 2014.
"It was due to their alternating and ever-changing position that the Islamic Emirate was compelled to suspend all dialogue with the Americans," the Taliban said on their website.
In Kabul, Panetta and Karzai gave radically different versions of talks between the two men, after the Americans insisted that recent events would not see US-led Nato combat troops withdraw earlier than scheduled in 2014.
"We're ready to take over all security responsibilities now," Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi quoted him as telling Panetta. "We'd prefer that the process be completed in 2013, not 2014," he told AFP.
Karzai then told Panetta that US-led international forces should "be withdrawn from villages and relocated in their bases", his office said.
It was not immediately clear how many American bases may be affected by Karzai's demand, as the United States previously disbanded a number of outposts in a bid to concentrate on securing major towns from Taliban influence.
Nor was there any immediate response from Nato or Panetta, who told reporters after his Karzai talks that he was "confident" both sides could work out a treaty allowing a US military presence in the country beyond 2014.
The defence chief said he was optimistic that both sides would reach an agreement on controversial night raids - a major issue blocking the treaty - ahead of a Nato summit in Chicago in May.
Karzai objects to the raids on the grounds that they violate the sanctity of Afghan families in their own homes and that they are responsible for many civilian deaths - a claim the US disputes.
The treaty being negotiated is supposed to cover Afghan-US relations beyond 2014, with the United States reportedly keen to maintain a foothold in a country to help prevent it from once again becoming a haven for al Qaeda.
Analysts fear Sunday's shootings could complicate talks on a possible long-term US troop presence, as the government has so far refused to grant them legal immunity - the same issue that scuppered a US strategic pact with Iraq.
Panetta said he promised Karzai that the gunman would be brought to justice and that the Pentagon would look at what circumstances may have caused the incident - including the possible effect of combat stress on troops.
But his visit was also overshadowed by an unprecedented security breach during his arrival in Afghanistan on Wednesday when an Afghan interpreter tried to ram a truck into US Marines waiting to greet the Pentagon chief.
The incident, which American officials took 10 hours to confirm, took place as Panetta flew into the high security Camp Bastion base.
Panetta downplayed the matter, telling reporters: "I have absolutely no reason to believe that this was directed at me," but adding: "This is a war area" and "we're going to get these kind of incidents".
Bomb attacks killed at least 22 Afghans in the south during Panetta's two-day visit - eight civilians in Helmand and a policeman in Kandahar on Wednesday and 13 women and children in a roadside bomb in Uruzgan on Thursday.
Military officials dripped out confused details of the attempted airport attack, claiming first that there was no link to Panetta's arrival and then confirming that the target was indeed his US Marine welcoming committee.
The incident is likely to heighten concerns about a surge in attacks on Western troops carried out by Afghans being trained to take over in 2014.
According to US officials, an Afghan interpreter hijacked a pick-up truck from a soldier and drove it at a group of US Marines on the airfield tarmac, before it crashed and burst into flames.
A British soldier was injured "in the course of the theft" of the vehicle, a military official said, without giving details.
Meanwhile the US does not believe that Afghan President Karzai is seeking for NATO forces to pull out of Afghan villages immediately, despite his statement on Thursday, a US defence official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We believe that this statement reflects President Karzai's strong interest in moving as quickly as possible to a fully independent and sovereign Afghanistan," said Pentagon spokesman George Little, who was also briefing reporters travelling with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Abu Dhabi.
"We believe that we need to continue to work together because that's an American goal as well. And we believe that it needs to be done in a way that responsibly affects that outcome."
COMMENTS (10)
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There is no similarity between Viatnam war and USSR invasion of Afghanistan with the on going war there . It is a war against terrorism . How one can claim the defeat of collision forces after the successful Abottabad operation . In fact the war against terrorism will keep on going in different forms even after the proposed withdrawl . After all it is an international resolve and not only of US . That is why Pakistan is still bound to cooperate in this mission despite of religious opposition at home .
@Afghan Karachite:
@ MUSLIM PAKISTANI: I’ve’ never seen the same kind of your enthusiasm for the TTP resistance? Hypocrisy, isn’t it?
I didnt realize Pakistan was under occupation by NATO Forces....since ten years. No brother it aint hypocrisy, however the Taliban were before, they were way better than the invading forces, moreover, Im positive they'll govern the Afghan people better given a second chance, heck in Pakistan, we recycle the same trash every few years, everyone deserves second chances! And lets not forget the Taliban's leadership, only wants to rule by Islam, may Allah put barakah and khair in the land and leaders.
@Nikos Retsos: After Pakistan losing all wars with India and the creation of Bagladesh, does Pakistan have a 'India War Syndrome" and a 'Bangladesh War Syndrome" also?
Taliban see the U.S. as an irredeemable invader, and Karzai as a U.S. rotten apple. The Taliban peace talks with the U.S. are about giving the Americans a face-saving way to leave Afghanistan without admitting defeat in the war, and thus avoid an "Afghan War Syndrome" on top of the already U.S. saddled "Vietnam Syndrome."
The U.S. fallacy that it will leave military operations to the Afghan army when it throws in the towel is quite preposterous. The Afghan army would not go out to kill other Afghans to help the U.S. maintain a foothold in Afghanistan. Afghans were enlisted in the Afghans army for the U.S. salary, not to become executioners of Taliban on U.S. behalf. Most of the Afghan soldiers sympathize with the Taliban, and they will defect to them once most of the U.S. troops are out, and attack the rest as they flee. That is exactly what U.S. paid South Vietnamese army did, and that will be the final scenario of the U.S. fall in Afghanistan as well. The Afghans - both the army and the Taliban- won't wave bye-bye and throw kisses to U.S. troops when they start running out. They will shoot them in the back. I have no doubt that the foreign troops depart Afghanistan under secrecy at night from different locations because they know nobody likes them there!
The U.S. has already lost the war in Afghanistan. The only thing remaining now is to pick up the pieces of its misadventure, go home, and let the Taliban list the U.S. name in the Graveyard of the Empires obituary of buried invaders! Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Taliban began in 1994 when there was no foreign occupation. They are only fighting for money, power and ideology.
This indicates that the Taliban are only interested in getting their comrades released from the US custody and getting a political appearance - they are not concerned about the bigger picture; the future of Afghans and Afghanistan.
@ MUSLIM PAKISTANI:
I've' never seen the same kind of your enthusiasm for the TTP resistance? Hypocrisy, isn't it?
No one can leave the war against terrorists inconclusive . Neither Pakistan nor Nato . Resumption of supply line is a clear indication and enforcing the collective resolve . There may be a shift in operation and prime target now could be those who are extending moral support to terrorists behind the curtain from the Pakistan .
@MUSLIM PAKISTANI:
Afghan not Afghani.
Long live the Afghani resistance to illegal occupation and massacre!