The United States peace envoy will travel to Afghanistan next week and then Qatar to resume negotiations with the Taliban and iron out a deal that could end nearly 18 years of military intervention, the State Department said Monday.

Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad will leave next Monday for the mission lasting through August 1 "as part of an overall effort to facilitate a peace process that ends the conflict in Afghanistan," the State Department said in a statement.

In the capital Kabul, he will discuss with the Afghan government the "next steps in the peace process, including identifying a national negotiating team that can participate in intra-Afghan negotiations," the statement added.

Forming such a team is a fraught issue, as the Taliban refuse to negotiate directly with the Afghan government.

He will then travel to Doha, where "he will resume talks with the Taliban," the State Department said.

Washington is hoping for a political agreement with the insurgents ahead of the Afghan presidential election scheduled for late September.

A breakthrough could pave the way for a withdrawal of international troops some 18 years after the 9/11 attacks, which led the US to launch a massive offensive to dislodge the Taliban government from Kabul.

The US negotiator has had several meetings with the Taliban in the past year, the most recent being on July 9 in Doha.

Earlier, the Taliban and other senior Afghan officials held intra-Afghan talks in the Qatari capital, pledging to deliver a "road map for peace" in Afghanistan.

Air strike kills eight Afghan civilians: official
Logar, Afghanistan (AFP) July 22, 2019 –

At least eight civilians — including children — were killed in an air strike that destroyed two homes in eastern Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

The deaths come amid a flare-up in violence across war-torn Afghanistan, where civilians are dying each day even as the US and the Taliban have claimed progress in an ongoing series of peace talks.

Six people were wounded in Sunday night's strike in the Baraki Barak district of Logar, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Kabul, according to district governor Ahmad Wais Abdul Rahimzai.

"The air strike has hit two residential houses in the district," he told AFP, noting that the homes were occupied by Kuchi, an ordinarily nomadic people who sometimes settle in permanent structures.

"Two children are among those killed, and two women are among the wounded," he said.

Didar Lawang, a spokesman for the provincial governor, confirmed that the air strike had resulted in civilian casualties, but did not provide details.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the strike. US forces in Afghanistan declined to comment, but the Afghan defence ministry said it would issue a statement later.

The conflict in Afghanistan has in recent weeks intensified with both Afghan forces and the Taliban claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other's forces.

The clashes have also killed or injured scores of civilians, including many children.

At least eight Afghan civilians were killed when a car bomb detonated near a major university in Kabul city last week.

Afghan officials blamed the Taliban for the bloodshed, though the militant group denied any involvement.