Stay in your bases, Karzai tells Nato as Taliban halts peace talks

Hamid Karzai threatened a key strand of Nato strategy to secure Afghanistan with a surprise order yesterday (Thursday) that Nato troops immediately pull out of rural outposts and withdraw to their bases.

The demand follows outrage over Sunday's massacre in Kandahar in which an American staff sergeant broke into houses and methodically shot 16 occupants and last month's burning of Korans by US troops.

As the coalition was digesting the wide-ranging implications of the demand, it suffered a further blow when the Taliban announced that it had halted exploratory peace talks with America because of Washington's delay in transferring senior prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

The suspension apparently halted the only significant attempt at a negotiated settlement to the decade-long conflict.

Mr Karzai asked Leon Panetta, the visiting US defence secretary, to make sure foreign troops "have to be taken out of Afghan village outposts and return to [larger] bases," according to a statement from Kabul. "Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own."

Mr Karzai said the move would help prevent a repeat of the Kandahar massacre. But training local defence militias to protect their villages and roads against the Taliban has been a central Nato strategy for more than a year.

Many British and American troops trying to secure the countryside are also stationed in small rural bases where they work alongside Afghan forces.

The Taliban said it was immediately suspending its political overtures in the Gulf state of Qatar, where it had planned to open an office to further negotiations. The suspension is likely to increase the possibility of a renewed offensive by the insurgents this spring.

Sources close to the talks said the Taliban had been upset at American delays in releasing five of its senior members held at Guantanamo Bay - which had been expected as a "confidence-building measure".

The Taliban had also been angered by Washington's insistence that the movement's representatives in its new Qatar office meet aides to Mr Karzai.

The sources said the Americans had been reluctant to release the prisoners too early in case it encouraged the Taliban negotiators to increase their demands.

Washington had also been anxious not to act unilaterally and were keen to keep Mr Karzai central in the talks.

A statement issued by the Taliban blamed America's "alternating and ever changing position" for the collapse. However the movement appeared to leave the door ajar to restarting the talks at a later date - if its conditions were met. Talks would remain halted "until the Americans clarify their stance on the issues concerned and until they show willingness in carrying out their promises instead of wasting time", the statement said.

American officials have emphasised that no decision has yet been made over the request to transfer the detainees, either to house arrest or to a more relaxed Qatari jail. The transfer of the senior figures, including Khairullah Khairkhwa, the former governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammad Fazl, the former head of the Taliban army, was predicted to face stiff domestic opposition in America though.

The Taliban statement again rejected any possibility of talking directly to Mr Karzai's government, which the insurgents denounce as a puppet regime of the Americans.

David Cameron, speaking at Ground Zero during his visit to New York, played down the significance of the Taliban threat to break off talks, saying: "I think we just have to be clear that we have a plan in Afghanistan which is to hand over to a capable Afghan army, police and government at the end of 2014.

"We will do that whithout a political settlement or with a political settlement. That is up to the Taliban. Every time they appear on the battlefield they lose and lose decisively. Their ranks of commanders have been massively depleted.

"They have the choice - a political settlement where they give up weapons and become part of Afghanistan's political future or they take this attitude and Afghanistan will take care of its own security."

Michael Semple, the former deputy European Union representative in Kabul and a leading expert on the Taliban, said the collapse of talks would strengthen the hand of Taliban hardliners and result in more fighting.

"Within the Taliban leadership, the decision to engage with the Americans in Qatar was a controversial one," he said.

"The [Taliban] pragmatists simply had little to show for the risk they took by going to Qatar. This now creates a golden opportunity for the hawks to do what they know best - go back to fighting."

-- Two Swiss tourists have been found safe and well after being held hostage by the Pakistani Taliban for eight months.

Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were driving from India to Switzerland when they were snatched at gunpoint in Baluchistan, scene of a long-running insurgency and an area known for kidnappings.

They presented themselves at a checkpoint in North Waziristan, a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold, amid conflicting accounts about whether they escaped or were released in exchange for a ransom.