Two US service members were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, following the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Islamic republic ahead of the crucial peace talks with the Taliban, according to the statement from the US military obtained by a Sputnik correspondent
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2019) Two US service members were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, following the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Islamic republic ahead of the crucial peace talks with the Taliban, according to the statement from the US military obtained by a Sputnik correspondent.
The US Department of Defense gave no further details, withholding the soldiers' Names until their families have been informed.
The deaths bring the tally of US service members killed in Afghanistan in 2019 to at least six.
The news comes just hours after Pompeo arrived for an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday. This is the first time the US secretary of state visited Kabul since the start of US-Taliban peace talks and just days before the seventh round of their crucial negotiations in Doha due to start on Saturday.
Pompeo told reporters that he expected the peace deal to be finalized before the September presidential election in the Islamic republic. He also noted that while the United States was prepared to remove its forces from Afghanistan, Washington had not yet agreed to a time line for it.
The importance of the peace talks was highlighted not only by Pompeo's visit but also the Taliban's visits to China and Iran earlier in the month in a bid to gain support for its efforts from neighboring states.
"The Taliban will do best to have effective talks and assure them there would be no [terrorist] threat from the Afghan soil in future. We will do our best to reach breakthroughs on what we discussed earlier with US officials," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Sputnik.
The Taliban and the United States are trying to reach a peace deal, which envisages the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and assurances from the Taliban that the country will not be ever again used as a safe haven for terrorists who threaten Washington and its allies.
Washington has however stressed that it has been seeking a comprehensive deal, also focusing on a permanent ceasefire and intra-Afghan talks. The Taliban, in turn, have said that they are not discussing intra-Afghan talks and ceasefire with the United States.
