US 'on threshold' of agreement with Taliban: Envoy

KABUL, Afghanistan

Close to striking a deal, the U.S. and Taliban have concluded the latest round of marathon peace talks in Doha, Qatar, Washington's top envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation said early Sunday.

“We are at the threshold of an agreement that will reduce violence and open the door for Afghans to sit together to negotiate an honorable & sustainable peace and a unified, sovereign Afghanistan that does not threaten the United States, its allies, or any other country,” tweeted Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, while leaving for Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Khalilzad, a seasoned, Afghan-born U.S. diplomat, is set to meet and brief Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the developments.

Less than a day before his announcement, a Taliban-claimed suicide attack in Afghanistan's Kunduz province killed 10 people and injured five others, including the police chief.

It came minutes after officials claimed to have pushed back a Taliban offensive on the strategically important city in the north of the country.

Ghani called the assault a “failed attack” by the Taliban, in clear contrast to their leadership’s ongoing peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar.

Feroz Bashari, a government spokesman, said in a series of tweets that at least 26 Taliban fighters were killed in the first airstrike in Zakhail, Kunduz. He accused the Taliban of using civilians as human shields.

Kunduz, once the Taliban’s hub in the north, briefly fell twice to the group in 2015 and 2016. The city links many northern provinces to Kabul.

Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in violence ahead of the Sept. 28 presidential elections, which the Taliban insurgents oppose.