| Summary/Abstract |
After 15 years of war in Afghanistan since the US sent troops, the peace process seems to have little traction. As the war has worn on, the Afghan government, the United States and allies have failed to end the continuing Taliban insurgency that even as late as the October 2016 favored suicide bombers, road mines and the killing of civilians. When the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban held their first direct talks in 2015 with Pakistan’s mediation, there seemed hope of resolution but the death of Taliban leader Mullah Omarin July 2015 derailed the peace process. In the wake of the drone attack that killed his successor Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the Taliban has violently fought Afghan government troops. The mechanism formed in 2009 of China, the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan is trying to try to putpeace talks back on track and restore stability, but the attack on a shrine full of Shiite worshippers and numerous other Taliban attacks to retake parts of the country are the latest atrocities.
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