U.S. military and Afghan security forces killed an estimated 172 Taliban narco-jihadis over the weekend as both warring sides stepped up attacks in the wake of the cancellation of peace talks.

Taliban terrorists killed an American service member in Afghanistan on Monday, marking the second U.S. fatality this month and the 17th this year.

The American military death came nearly a week after U.S. President Donald Trump canceled peace talks with the terrorist organization.

Trump ended peace negotiations over the American fatality on September 5, vowing to intensify attacks against the terrorist group to unprecedented levels.

U.S. troops have already been dropping a historic number of bombs on the Taliban and other terrorists under Trump.

Since the U.S. declared its combat mission over at the end of 2014, Afghan troops have borne the brunt of the Taliban attacks, suffering an unsustainable amount of casualties.

The U.S. has devoted the vast majority ($83 billion) of the $132.5 billion spent on reconstruction in Afghanistan since the war began to developing the Afghan security forces, figures obtained by an American watchdog show.

Still, the Taliban has managed to conquer or hold sway over nearly half of the country.

On Monday, however, Asadullah Khalid, the acting minister of defense in Afghanistan, told CBS News that for the first time the terrorist group is taking more losses than the Afghan forces.

The Afghan minister also said the Afghan forces are spearheading nearly 90 percent of the offensive operations in Afghanistan, mostly independent of American troops.

“In most of the operation now, Afghan force are doing this operation independently,” he proclaimed.

The minister’s comments came as both the U.S. troops and Afghan forces boasted counterterrorism operations on the ground and in the air after Trump ended the peace negotiations.

American and Afghan troops have pledged to step up anti-Taliban operations across Afghanistan following Trump’s decision to end the talks on September 7.

Via Twitter, Trump declared, “There are much better ways to set up a negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea how to recover!”

The Taliban has never been hit harder than it is being hit right now. Killing 12 people, including one great American soldier, was not a good idea. There are much better ways to set up a negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea how to recover! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2019

On Saturday, U.S.-backed Afghan forces killed an estimated 40 Taliban jihadis in Samangan province, including the group’s shadow governor Mawlavi Nooruddin, Sky News reported.

The Taliban denied the death of Nooruddin despite several reports announcing his demise

On Sunday, the U.S.-backed Afghan forces killed 90 Taliban jihadis and wounded 20 others in Paktika province’s Warmama district, KP noted.

U.S.-allied ANDSF troops also killed at least 35 Taliban militants Sunday in Farah province, located next to Iran, including Mullah Sayed Azim alias Sheikh Mansoor, a Taliban-designated shadow governor for Anar Dara district, KP revealed.

Moreover, U.S. troops and their Afghan counterparts killed seven narco-jihadis in the northern Faryab province, China’s state-run Xinhua reported.

U.S.-backed Afghan forces also reportedly killed 19 Taliban jihadis Monday in the provinces of Wardak (6), Samangan (4), and Badakhshan (1), Ghazni (3), Balkh (2), and Logar (3), a testament to the extent of the operations against the terrorist group.

Breitbart News excluded the terrorist fatalities on Monday.

The Taliban group is reportedly hopeful that peace negotiations with the United States will resume soon. Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the jihadis, told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday:

We are committed to what we have agreed provided the U.S. should show commitment to what they have agreed. Otherwise, the blame for prolongation of the war rests with U.S. … We are ready to get our independence either on the table of talks or at the fields of battles. To have an independent country, without occupation, is our legitimate right. We think the very peaceful way to resolve the Afghan issue is to implement the agreement between us and USA.

The Taliban intensified attacks amid the peace negotiations, refusing to agree to a ceasefire with the administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Taliban jihadis, who are fighting to establish a sharia-compliant Islamic state, have long maintained that they will only negotiate with Kabul after the full withdrawal of foreign forces.

The Taliban considers itself the only legitimate government of Afghanistan, dismissing the Ghani administration as an American puppet.

Shaheen said, “The ceasefire will start when the Afghans reach [an] agreement during intra-Afghan negotiations.”

According to the Pentagon, terrorists and other non-combat incidents have killed 2,297 U.S. troops in Afghanistan since American declared war on the Taliban in October 2001.

The Taliban and other terrorists have also maimed 20,543 American service members.

Citing data obtained by Brown University, the cost of the Afghan war will reach $975 billion by the end of 2019, including $132.5 billion on nation-building alone.

The Taliban, nevertheless, controls or contests more territory now than during any other time since the U.S. removed its regime from power in late 2001.