Karzai suspends talks with US,Taliban

After initially responding with cautious acceptance of the opening of the Taliban office on Tuesday,Afghan officials and much of the public reacted viscerally to the images that followed. News footage showed the Taliban flag being raised in the Doha office,and a banner was hung that evoked the old Taliban government: “Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

In an initial statement,Karzai accused the Americans of acting disingenuously in negotiating the shape of the Taliban office,and immediately called off talks between Afghan and American officials over the bilateral security agreement that would allow a post-2014 American presence in Afghanistan.

Then,in a second statement from his office,Karzai put off indefinitely any government negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar,saying that it would not meet with them unless the insurgents lowered the office’s profile and reiterating a demand that the peace process be led by Afghan officials.

“The way the Taliban office was opened in Qatar and the messages which were sent from it was in absolute contrast with all the guarantees that the United States of America had pledged,” Karzai said in a statement.

“Recent developments showed that there are foreign hands behind the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar. Unless the peace process is led by Afghans,the High Peace Council will not participate in the Qatar negotiations.” the statement said.

Within hours of opening an office for peace talks in Doha,Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan launched a deadly ambush on an American convoy — a signal that despite the move toward peace talks,the insurgents were not letting up their military activities. The attack took place in Shaka village,just outside Bagram air base. The international military coalition issued a statement confirming only that four coalition soldiers had been killed in an “indirect fire” attack.

And in Jalalabad,early Wednesday,Afghan police surrounded a house believed to be harbouring Taliban insurgents. In the ensuing firefight four insurgents were killed,according to police officials.