Trump Says 'Intensified' US Assault on Taliban to Go on as Secret Peace Talks Cancelled

Speaking at the 9/11 commemoration event, US President Donald Trump said that over "the last four days" US forces have "hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue".

News ID: 447012

Date: 13 September 2019 - 11:32

RNA - In his speech, Trump referred to the Taliban movement, several days after he called off secret Camp David meetings with the group and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Sputnik reported.

"We had peace talks scheduled a few days ago, I called them off when I learned that they [Taliban] had killed a great American soldier from Puerto Rico and 11 other innocent people," Trump said.

"They thought they would use this attack to show strength, but actually what they showed is unrelenting weakness. The last four days we have hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue,” he added.

Trump warned that any other terrorist organisation that carries out an attack on US soil will be met with power that the United States has never used before. However, Trump clarified that he was not talking about using nuclear weapons.

The day before, the Taliban vowed jihad against American soldiers in Afghanistan amid Trump's cancellation of peace talks with the group.

The move was prompted by several terrorist attacks conducted in early September and claimed by the Taliban. In early September, a huge explosion hit Kabul's PD9 district, where foreign troops and agencies are located, just hours after US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad‏ shared with the nation's leadership the details of a peace deal drafted during the ninth round of talks in the Qatari capital of Doha. Three days later, three explosions rocked Kabul, killing dozens of people, including a US soldier.

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