Pompeo: Taliban Violence Reduction Working Perfectly So Far

Violence is down substantially as deal continues to hold

Four days into the week-long “reduction of violence” deal between the US and the Taliban, things are still going quite well. Accusations of violations are fairly minor, and violence is down substantially.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was even more upbeat on the matter, saying the reduction of violence is “working perfectly” so far, despite conceding that things could change in the future.

Either way, the 7 day deal is more than half over, and just has to hold a bit longer to last until Saturday, when it will be replaced with a formal peace deal between the US and Taliban, ending 19 years of conflict.

The Afghan government claimed six Afghan civilians were killed in a Taliban attack in Balkh, but this seems not to be imperiling the overall process, and there seems to be no denying that violence has been reduced, overall.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.