The insurgents have opened an offensive against the capital of Helmand Province even as their negotiators remain at the table in Qatar.
The Taliban have opened an offensive on the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, overrunning some of its surrounding security checkpoints and largely cutting it off, even as their negotiators remained at the table for talks with the Afghan government that appear stalled. While the insurgent attempt to cap the fighting season with high-profile attacks before winter sets in was not unusual for recent years of the two-decade war, the run for a provincial capital amid peace talks suggested that the Taliban still see military bullying as their most effective negotiating tactic. The attack also appeared to test the limits of how far the United States military — which is drawing down to about 4,500 troops and significantly cutting back air support to Afghan forces since it signed a deal with the Taliban in February — would go to defend its Afghan allies. The United States has been critical of the Taliban’s intensified attacks across Afghanistan, but has stopped short of calling the group’s actions a breach of their agreement — even as the American troop withdrawal has continued. In recent weeks, confusing signals from Washington that President Trump wanted the remaining American troops home before next spring, as laid out in the withdrawal timeline agreed with the Taliban, threatened to further undermine the shaky Afghan government. In what appeared an attempt to send a clear message to the Taliban and reassure the Afghan forces of continued American support, the U.S. military said it had carried out “several targeted strikes” in defense of the Afghan forces under fire from the Taliban in Helmand Province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital. “The Taliban need to immediately stop their offensive actions in Helmand Province and reduce their violence around the country,” Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of the U.
