US says it supports Pakistan's 'right to defend itself' against Afghan Taliban

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday expressed support for what it called Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” against attacks from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers after Islamabad said earlier in the day that the neighboring countries were in “open war.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers had said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in major cities.

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“The United States supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group,” a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. U.S. diplomat Allison Hooker said on X she spoke on Friday with Pakistan Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch.

Pakistan is nuclear-armed and its military capabilities are vastly superior to Afghanistan’s. However, the Taliban are adept at guerrilla warfare, hardened by decades of fighting with U.S.-led forces, before returning to power in 2021 when Washington withdrew chaotically.

Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of Washington. The U.S. considers the Afghan Taliban to be a “terrorist” group.

The latest violence erupted after Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory last weekend triggered Afghan retaliatory attacks along the border on Thursday, escalating long‑simmering tensions over Pakistan’s claim that Afghanistan shelters Pakistani Taliban militants. Afghanistan denies this and argues Pakistan is deflecting blame for its own security failures.

The State Department spokesperson said Washington was aware of the escalation in tensions and “outbreak of fighting between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban,” adding the U.S. was “saddened by the loss of life.”

Both sides reported heavy losses in the fighting, which Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said amounted to an “open war”.

“The Taliban have consistently failed to uphold their counterterrorism commitments,” the State Department said, adding that “terrorist groups use Afghanistan as a launching pad for their heinous attacks.”

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Sam Holmes

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Kanishka Singh

Thomson Reuters

Kanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC, who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections; the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious dispute site in his native India.

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