KABUL: Afghanistan’s insurgent Taliban on Tuesday called on the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden to stick to the February agreement to withdraw US troops.
The United States has been pulling out troops under the deal which envisages the withdrawal to be complete by May, subject to certain security guarantees, while the Taliban holds peace talks with the Afghan government in Doha.
“The Islamic Emirate would like to stress to the new American president-elect and future administration that implementation of the agreement is the most reasonable and effective tool for ending the conflict between both our countries,” the militant group said in a statement, its first substantive comment on the results of the United States presidential election.
However, violence has been ramping up throughout the country with the Taliban attacking provincial capitals, in some case prompting United States airstrikes, as talks in Qatar’s capital have been mired in delays.
Groups such as the United Nations have also raised questions over Al Qaeda with a senior UN official telling the BBC last month that the group were still “heavily embedded” with the Taliban.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump had made ending the war in Afghanistan a major campaign promise and had said in a Tweet in October that troops could be out of Afghanistan by Christmas, though officials such as his national security adviser have said that they were working to the May 2021 deadline.
Taliban call on Biden to stick to US troop withdrawal deal
https://arab.news/r7uq9
Taliban call on Biden to stick to US troop withdrawal deal
- The US has been pulling out troops under the deal which envisages the withdrawal to be complete by May
Two family members of Mexico’s education secretary killed in shooting
MEXICO CITY: Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected in the shooting deaths of two family members of Mexico’s secretary of education on Saturday.
Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the country’s most violent states. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.
The local prosecutor’s office said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 am (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.
They did not identify a motive in the shooting or say whether they were searching for other suspects.
“Deep shock, outrage, and sorrow over the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.
Officials tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a Colima home on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a gunfight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found weapons and clothing in the suspects’ home linked to the double shooting.
Delgado was appointed education secretary by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.
