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Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as the new special envoy of the State Department in Afghanistan.
Mr. Khalilzad, said Mr. Pompeo, would be "focused full-time on developing opportunities to bring Afghans and Taliban to reconciliation".
The topic of reconciliation was an important topic as both secretaries traveled the region this week.
During a dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday, Pompeo, Mattis and their Indian counterparts "reaffirmed their common commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous and peaceful Afghanistan", according to a joint communiqué.
On Wednesday, Pompeo told reporters that he had discussed with Pakistani officials the "work we all know we need to do to try to develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan, which certainly benefits Afghanistan but also the United States and Pakistan ". The United States has accused Pakistan of granting refuge to militants who are waging war in neighboring Afghanistan – an accusation that Pakistan denies.
In July, a senior State Department official met with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar.
The two secretaries landed in the country at the beginning of a bloody September.
According to a statement by the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, a US service member was killed on Monday and another injured on Monday in a "seemingly internal attack" in eastern Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, 20 people – including two journalists – were killed in Kabul in bomb attacks against a wrestling club. ISIS has claimed responsibility for this attack. A recent UN report indicates that the number of Afghan civilians killed in the first six months of this year has reached a record high.
Ehsan Popalzai and Brad Wilkinson of CNN contributed to this report.
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