Top US commander in Afghanistan said Taliban has suffered twice casualties in compare with the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) on the battlefields; therefore, he said the group has started a series of suicide attacks on cities.

US forces and NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, said in an interview with TOLOnews that Taliban’s suicide bombings and attacks have not fulfilled any of their strategic goals.

“This is a deliberate attempt by the enemy to prove their relevance at the end of the year. And so in September after the enemy had suffered many defeats around the country and lost almost twice as many casualties as the ANDSF,” Nicholson said. “They (Taliban) got together and decided to conduct a series of suicide attacks in October to attempt to prove their relevance. These attacks did not gain any new territory while did kill some security forces, they mostly killed civilians. So these were indiscriminate terror attacks that killed civilians and attempt to show their relevance and they had absolutely no strategic purpose.”

The US forces commander said albeit the United States had warned Pakistan over housing insurgent groups on its soil, but still Pakistan’s behavior has not changed.

“You can see from the public statements of the US president and the US leadership a message we are delivering to the Pakistanis is they need to work with us against these terrorists who are threatening peace in Afghanistan,” Nicholson said.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said at the NATO Ministers of Defense Meeting that accepting Afghanistan’s Constitution is a precondition for the Taliban if they want to join the peace process.

“Reconciliation must be Afghan-led with an open door to the Taliban if they choose to stop killing and live by the Afghan Constitution,” said Mattes.

This comes after on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said 27 nations have committed to increasing troop numbers in the structure of the Resolute Support Mission in the coming months and the new commitment will increase the number of troops from 13,000 to 16,000.

He would not however give details right now on exact troop numbers.

The NATO chief also hailed the growing war capabilities of the Afghan Security and Defense Forces and said that the conventional Afghan security forces have prevented the Taliban from taking provincial capitals this fighting season.