WASHINGTON: Senior Taliban officials have been secretly negotiating with Afghan officials on a possible ceasefire, the Pentagon said Wednesday, even as US forces killed over 50 Taliban leaders in a series of strikes. He would not identify the figures involved in the negotiations, except to say that they included mid- and senior-level Taliban officials. Under surveillance by the Marines, the Taliban fighters returned to their Helmand stronghold, a centre for poppy cultivation. On May 24, they were spotted in a known Taliban command centre in Musa Qala. Among the dead was the number two Taliban leader in Helmand, Abdul Manan, and several district governors and local leaders in Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Farah, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces.

Source: Pakistan Today May 31, 2018 04:07 UTC