纽约时报 塔利班袭击阿富汗军事基地 而后又与美国特使和谈(2)（在线收听）

“The explosion was very big,” said Sharifullah Hotak, a member of Wardak’s provincial council.

瓦尔达克省议会成员沙瑞夫拉·霍塔克说:“这场爆炸威力很大。”

“It destroyed the building and damaged some houses close to the training center.”

“不仅摧毁了训练中心，还损坏了训练中心附近的一些房屋。”

It was unclear how many of the dead were officers of the Afghan intelligence agency versus local militia members they were training.

死者中究竟有多少是那个情报机构的官员，多少是他们训练的当地民兵目前还不清楚。

While security officials said the casualties were a mix of both,

虽然安全官员说两方都有伤亡，

a statement by the Afghan president’s office made no mention of the militia members and said intelligence agency “personnel” had been targeted.

但阿富汗总统办公室的一份声明却丝毫没有提到这些民兵成员，只说情报机构的“人员”被当作了这次袭击的目标。

Casualties of Afghan intelligence officers have generally been lower than those of other forces, in part because of the better training and equipment they have.

通常情况下，阿富汗情报官员的伤亡人数是低于其他部队的伤亡人数的，部分原因是他们更加训练有素，装备也更为精良。

But in recent years, as regular forces have been stretched by intensifying fighting across the country,

但近年来，由于全国各地的战斗都在不断加剧，普通军的力量已经捉襟见肘，

Afghan intelligence officers, particularly the agency’s special forces, have often found themselves operating like regular forces,

所以，情报官员，尤其是该机构的特种部队，经常要发挥普通军的作用，

deployed to different areas to hold the line and taking on other tasks they are not meant for.

被部署到不同区域维持秩序，还要承担其他原本不应该安排给他们的任务。

Over the summer, at least 11 intelligence officers were killed in an explosion in the southern city of Kandahar.

今年夏天，就有至少11名情报官员在南部城市坎大哈的一次爆炸中丧生。

The intelligence agency, long mentored by C.I.A. advisers, has also worked to extend its forces around the country by training local militias.

所以，该情报机构，长期受中央情报局C.I.A.顾问指导，也会通过训练当地民兵，努力在全国各地壮大自己的势力。

In the past, security officials have played down those efforts, casting the militias as organic movements of locals who are staging “uprisings” against the Taliban.

过去，安全官员们并不看好该情报机构的这些努力，扬言民兵只是当地人组织“起义”，起来反抗塔利班的有生力量。

But on Monday, they acknowledged that many men killed in the attack were militia members they had been training.

但周一，他们承认，在袭击中丧生的许多人都是他们一直在训练的民兵。

The intelligence agency was using the center to train and equip pro-government militia members before sending them to other parts of the province to support security forces,

该情报机构要先在该中心对那些亲政府民兵进行训练，给他们配上装备，再将他们派往该省其他地区支持安全部队，

said Mr. Hotak, the Wardak provincial council member.

瓦尔达克省议会成员霍塔克说。

Despite the cold winter in most parts of the country and American efforts to persuade the Taliban to sit down for talks with the Afghan government,

尽管阿富汗大部分地区的冬天都很冷，尽管美国已经在努力劝说塔利班坐下来与阿富汗政府谈判，

violence has continued unabated across the country.

但阿富汗全国各地的暴力事件仍然有增无减。

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy for facilitating Afghan peace talks, is on the latest of several trips to the region over the past couple of months to build momentum for talks.

美国派去促进阿富汗和平谈判的特使扎勒米·哈利勒扎德，现在又来到了该地区，为谈判营造时机。过去几个月，他已多次出访该地区。

After visiting Pakistan, where Taliban leaders enjoy sanctuary, Mr. Khalilzad struck an optimistic tone.

在访问了塔利班领导人享有庇护的巴基斯坦之后，哈利勒扎德的语气变得颇为乐观。

“We’re heading in the right direction with more steps by Pakistan coming that will lead to concrete results,” he wrote in a Twitter posting on Sunday.

“我们正朝着正确的方向前进，巴基斯坦即将采取更多能够取得切实成果的措施，”他周日在推特上发帖称。

Hours after the attack in Wardak, the Taliban put out a statement saying they had resumed talks, which had seemed stalled for weeks, with American diplomats in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

在瓦尔达克袭击发生几个小时后，塔利班又发表声明，称他们已经恢复了和驻卡塔尔首都多哈的美国外交官的谈判，而在此之前，谈判似已搁浅数周。