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The stalled peace process in Afghanistan is getting closer to collapse, after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered his forces to resume offensive operations against insurgents, in response to two attacks on a maternity hospital and a funeral.
At least 14 people, including babies and nurses, died when gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in Kabul at dawn on Tuesday, authorities said. Soon after, a suicide bombing occurred during a funeral in the east of the country, killing more than twenty people.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility Tuesday night on Wednesday for the suicide bombing, which targeted the funeral of a police chief in Nangarhar province, which left dozens of wounded.
He held the Afghan president responsible for the “Taliban” and “ISIS” movement. He said in a televised speech: “Today we witnessed terrorist attacks carried out by the Taliban and ISIS groups at a hospital in Kabul and a funeral in Nangarhar, as well as other attacks in the country.”
He ordered the Afghan security forces to end the decision to “maintain the defensive posture” and “return to the offensive posture and resume operations against the enemy.” This change in attitude comes after months of the Afghan army committing to a defensive response only to any attack by the “Taliban”. The objective of the measure was to show good will before the start of possible peace talks, but the “Taliban” did not reciprocate and launched a series of attacks that started with the rebels who signed an agreement with the United States.
The first attack took place when armed men stormed the Parchi National Hospital in Kabul, while parents took their children, some of them newborn, to appointments with doctors.
The Interior Ministry said three armed men surrounded the Parchi National Hospital in Kabul for hours after the attack, which occurred early in the morning before being killed by security forces in a purge.
The maternity hospital is located in western Kabul, where members of the Shiite Hazara minority live, who are constantly under attack by ISIS.
And the attack is the most recent in an institution affiliated with the health sector already exhausted in the country, since health facilities and teams have been repeated victims of attacks or shots between the parties in conflict during decades of war in the country . About an hour after the Kabul attack, a suicide bomber killed at least 24 people during the funeral of a local police chief in eastern Nangarhar province, according to state spokesman Ataullah Kogiani.
The suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral. A funeral participant, which witnesses said included thousands of people, said he heard a powerful explosion and saw hundreds of people thrown to the ground.
The “Taliban” denied any involvement in Tuesday’s attacks and warned that it was “fully prepared” to repel any attack by Afghan forces. “From now on, the responsibility for a further escalation of violence and its repercussions rests with the Kabul administration,” it said in a statement.
The fate of the peace process.
These acts of violence raise new questions about the fate of the peace process, which is under threat. The “Taliban” have avoided launching major attacks in Afghan cities since February, when their representatives signed a landmark agreement with the United States that is supposed to pave the way for peace talks between the movement and the Afghan government. Under the agreement, the “Taliban” pledged not to attack the US-led coalition, but did not make a similar commitment to Afghan forces, as they intensified their attacks on states.
Under the agreement, all US and foreign forces are expected to leave Afghanistan within the next year. Thousands of US soldiers have already left, and the number is expected to drop to 8,600 in a matter of months.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the Afghan government and the “Taliban” to cooperate after the attacks, which he described as “egregious” and noted that the “Taliban” denied responsibility for the attacks.
“The Taliban and the Afghan government must cooperate to bring those responsible to justice,” a statement released to Pompeo said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, said that under the agreement, “the United States Army will continue to carry out defensive strikes against the Taliban when they attack” its Afghan partners.
Michael Robin, an expert at the American Enterprise Institute, compared the peace process with Afghanistan to a patient in a clinical coma: “No one wants to detach the devices that keep him alive and everyone expects to see a blink in his eyes.” But he emphasized that Ghani had no choice but to return to the battlefields.
Laurel Miller, director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group, Laurel Miller, said she still hoped the peace process would continue, but expressed concern that it may be “disappearing.” The latest violence comes the day after four bombs exploded in a neighborhood in northern Kabul, injuring four civilians, including a boy.
And ISIS later claimed responsibility for Monday’s attacks, according to the US group “SITE”, to track jihadist sites.
The latest bombings were part of a series of attacks carried out by ISIS in the capital. In March, at least 25 people were killed by an armed man inside a Sikh temple in an attack claimed by ISIS.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States’ special envoy to Afghanistan, called on the Afghan government and the “Taliban” to work to achieve peace. He wrote on Twitter: “Otherwise, Afghanistan would be vulnerable to terrorism, permanent instability and economic difficulties.” The agreement with Washington foresees the withdrawal of all US and foreign forces from Afghanistan within the next year.
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