President Ashraf Ghani has announced on Tuesday that Afghanistan will resume “offensive” action against the Taliban, citing the attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul earlier in the day. The Taliban denied involvement in the attack.
Though the Afghan government never really stopped moving against the Taliban, the formal shift to an offensive posture is potentially throwing the US-Taliban peace deal into doubt. It’s like the Afghan officials are doing this at least in part hoping the US will follow their lead.
That doesn’t seem to be the case, with the Pentagon saying that the US will continue to only act in defensive operations, and will remain committed to an effort at a diplomatic settlement built by the peace deal.
Some dismissed the government’s announcement as not meaning much, noting that they were never very effective at offensive operations in the first place, and can’t expect a huge change on the ground.
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