Earlier in the day, CNN posted a video allegedly showing Taliban fighters executing 22 members of the Afghan Special Forces unit. The killings reportedly took place on June 16, in the Faryab province in the north of the country, close to Turkmenistan. The Taliban have denied that the executions occurred.
"The video - which I should say we don't have any reason to doubt - depicts horrifying scenes, the killing - in this case - the slaughter of unarmed individuals is an atrocious act, an outrageous sight and of course, we condemn it," Price said.
Afghanistan is seeing a spike in violence at the hands of the Taliban as international troops are gradually being withdrawn from the country. The troop pullout was one of the points of agreement between the Taliban and the United States reached in Doha in February 2020. In early July, the Pentagon said that the US has withdrawn over 95% of American military personnel and equipment from Afghanistan.
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