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KABUL, Afghanistan – Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban insurgents attacked army checkpoints in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, killing 21 soldiers in the deadliest single incident for the Afghan army in at least a year.
Also on Sunday, Afghanistan’s Taliban said they had suspended “mediation” with the United States to exchange captive Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, halting – at least temporarily – what was considered the best chance yet of securing the 27-year-old soldier’s freedom since his capture in 2009.
In a terse Pashto language statement emailed to The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid blamed the “current complex political situation in the country” for the suspension.
In response to the assault – which also left several Afghan soldiers missing – President Hamid Karzai postponed a planned trip to Sri Lanka.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, who is spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said “hundreds” of foreign and Afghan insurgents crossed the border to mount the attack, which took place in the remote and mountainous Ghazi Abad district of Kunar Province in the early morning hours.
Azimi did not specify which border, but Kunar lies next to Pakistan. It’s a militant stronghold, and many Arab and other foreign insurgents are believed to operate there alongside the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack in an emailed statement, saying that one of their insurgents was killed and two were wounded.
The group has escalated attacks in recent months as it tries to take advantage of the withdrawal of foreign troops at the end of 2014. Casualties among Afghan troops have been rising significantly since they took the lead in the war against the Taliban. Since the beginning of 2014, 84 Afghan army soldiers have been killed.
A U.S. official with knowledge of the talks to free Bergdahl said the cause of the suspension was not the result of any issue between the United States and Taliban. He declined to elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage seen as “proof of life” demanded by the U.S. Bergdahl is believed to be held in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mujahid said the indirect talks with the U.S. had been mediated by Qatar, where the Taliban established a political office last June. The video of Bergdahl was part of the negotiations which were to lead to the eventual transfer of the five Taliban leaders held since 2002 in Guantanamo Bay.
