Taliban Promises ‘Nightmare’ For US Troops If They Stay Past May 1st

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Since President Biden is breaking the US-Taliban peace deal by pushing back the May 1st withdrawal deadline to September 11th, the Taliban said it is ready to attack US troops again and turn the final months of Washington’s almost twenty-year-old war into a “nightmare.”

Mullah Salih Khan, a Taliban commander in the Helmand Province, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that the group is prepared to strike “very much prepared to strike” US and Afghan government forces, warning that the Taliban will turn Afghanistan “into a nightmare” for them.

Mullah Mujahid Rahman, a Taliban subcommander from the Ghazni province, also said the group was ready to fight the US. He said the US has “proven they can’t be trusted after retreating from the May 1st deadline” and that the Taliban is willing to “fight till the end” of the US occupation.

“We have the pride of defeating about 100,000 invaders from [different] countries in Afghanistan. A few thousand won’t be a problem at all,” he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid delivered a warning via Twitter on Wednesday. “If the agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded and those whom failed to comply with the agreement will be held liable,” he said.

Since the US-Taliban deal was signed in Doha in February 2020, no US troops have died in combat in Afghanistan. Leading up to President Biden’s decision on Afghanistan, the Taliban has been clear that they will again target US troops if they remain in the country beyond May 1st.

Imagine the optics if America is pulling out of Afghanistan on 9/11 under fire from the Taliban. This is such an avoidable shame.

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) April 14, 2021

Formally announcing his plan on Wednesday, President Biden tried to frame his new timeline as being compliant with the deal. But instead of leaving Afghanistan by May 1st, Biden is starting the withdrawal process on that date with the goal of completing it before September 11th.