The commander of international troops in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, has said that attacks by the Taliban have escalated despite promises the group made in the peace deal with Washington signed a year ago to reduce violence.

“Taliban violence is much higher than historical norms,” Miller told Reuters. “It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan.”

Miller said that the fighting now was an indicator that not only would there be a spring offensive – a move many diplomats view as against the spirit of the Doha agreement – but that it could be more intense than before.

“If the violence isn’t reduced, it’s going to make a peace process very, very difficult; it would be very difficult for any side to make the necessary compromises,” Miller added.

In a separate report, the United Nations has said that the Afghan Taliban have kept up a close relationship with Al Qaeda despite having pledged to stop cooperating with terrorist groups.

“There is still clearly a close relationship between Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” said Edmund Fitton-Brown, the coordinator of the U.N. panel responsible for tracking the Taliban and terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

“We believe that the top leadership of Al Qaeda is still under Taliban protection,” he said. According to the U.N. monitoring team’s last report in January, there are 200 to 500 Al Qaeda fighters across about 11 Afghan provinces.

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