Trump must tread carefully, warns Taliban

The Taliban on Thursday warned Donald Trump to "tread carefully" while dealing with Afghanistan, days after the US President called off the peace negotiations with the terror group.

"Trump must tread carefully. He has yet to grasp the type of nation he is dealing with. His advisers must make him understand & introduce the Graveyard of Empires #Afghanistan to him," Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban's spokesperson wrote on Twitter.

The Taliban had on Sunday termed Trump's decision to call off peace talks as "unbelievable", asserting that his "disappointing" tweets "damaged his credibility".

"US experiment with every possible savagery over the past 18 years but it only increased our resistance & American generals along with their military strategies failed one after the other," Mujahid said in another tweet today.

Trump had called off the negotiations with Taliban and cancelled a "secret meeting" with the group's representatives at Camp David in the wake of the Kabul terror attack, which claimed 12 lives, including an American soldier.

Despite Trump's decision, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that the administration is still working toward a deal but it will not proceed until the Taliban delivers on its commitments.

The US has been negotiating with the Taliban in the last few months at Doha despite the group's reluctance to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, which it views as a US puppet.

Earlier, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said that the Trump administration had reached a deal 'in principle' to withdraw over 5,000 troops from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees by the Taliban to not allow the war-torn country to be used as a base for attacks abroad.