After ending talks with the Taliban, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the group is being hit harder than ever before.
Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump blamed the Taliban for the end of talks after the group claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul that killed 12 people including an American soldier.
“I’ll tell you one thing—we are hitting the Taliban right now harder than they’ve ever before been hit,” Trump said.
He suggested that the Taliban did this thinking they could have upper hand in negotiations.
“What they did was horrible… When they killed a great American soldier – when they killed 12 people – innocent people – essentially, innocent people because if you look, I mean many of those people were civilians,” he said.
“You also had a NATO soldier in addition to our great soldier. But when they did what they did in order to create what they thought was a better negotiating stance I said that’s the end of them – get them out. I don’t want anything to do with them. They’ve been hit very hard,” Trump said.
“I know for a fact they said that was a big mistake that they made and it was. But, that was my decision and what we’re doing now is my decision,” he said when asked about his decision to invite the Taliban to Camp David for a meeting that was eventually cancelled.
“The talks with the Taliban are dead,” Trump said.
