Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the U.S. will not agree to a cease-fire with Taliban forces in Afghanistan without “demonstrable evidence” that it is committed to reducing violence.

Taliban killed or maimed thousands of Afghan civilians in 2019, against the backdrop of the ongoing peace talks aimed at ending the 18 year conflict in the war-torn country.

India has strengthened its military power along its border with arch-rival Pakistan by deploying its Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) and other weapons amid a rising number of ceasefire violations and the alleged infiltration of terrorists into India.

At least 29 members of the Afghan security forces have been killed in Taliban attacks that followed air and ground assaults by government forces on the Islamist group at the weekend.

Late Tuesday night, four helicopters carrying 50 Afghan special forces commandos touched down just outside a Taliban compound on Afghanistan’s western edge. Intelligence collected by U.S. and Afghan forces indicated the buildings were being used as a prison, holding dozens of Afghan security forces.

Terror attacks in Pakistan plummeted by more than 85% over the last decade. It’s a welcome statistic for the country, but one that risks being overshadowed by international concern over its efforts to curb terror funding and lingering militant activity that could test any future peace agreement in neighboring Afghanistan.

Gunmen on motorcycles killed two polio vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, local police said.

A reduction in attacks in major Afghan cities amid American peace talks with the Taliban could be misleading. Bloodletting in the countryside continues.

Two Pakistani soldiers and five militants have been killed in a shoot-out in the northwestern region of North Waziristan, the military says.

TALIBAN CLAIMS: The Taliban have seized on the Monday crash of a U.S. surveillance plane as the latest rallying cry against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, as attempts to revive peace talks are showing little signs of progress.