Pompeo says Taliban 'overreached' in attack that killed American

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on multiple morning shows Sunday morning to discuss the president's tweet announcing he cancelled a secret Sunday meeting with Taliban leaders at Camp David after a Taliban attack in Kabul killed a US soldier.

Pomepo said the Taliban “overreached” with the Thursday car bomb attack, which killed 11 others and occurred in a diplomatic area near the US Embassy.

Previously, as President Donald Trump explained in his tweets, the secret meeting was meant to negotiate a peace agreement, and he also planned to meet with the Afghanistan president separately.

Trump suggested in the tweets that the Taliban needed to agree to a ceasefire, while Pompeo noted that it was up to the terrorist group to “change their behavior” before moving forward.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Taliban “overreached” with their car bomb attack in a diplomatic area near the US Embassy in Kabul, killing an American soldier — and that led President Donald Trump to pull back from planned Afghanistan peace talks at Camp David.

Pompeo says it's now up to the Taliban to “change their behavior.” America's top diplomat isn't saying whether or when peace talks would resume.

Trump tweeted on Saturday night that he had canceled a secret meeting, planned for Sunday at the presidential retreat in Maryland, with Taliban and Afghan leaders, and called off talks with the insurgent group. He cited the Thursday attack.

Read more: Trump and the Taliban are telling wildly different stories about why he canceled a planned meeting at Camp David days before the 9/11 anniversary

Pompeo is appearing on five Sunday news shows, including his appearance on ABC News' “This Week” when host George Stephanopoulos asked if the peace talks were “now dead.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells @GStephanopoulos that Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the State Department Zalmay Khalilzad is “coming home for now,” but adds, “I hope it's the case that the Taliban will change their behavior” https://t.co/BUjpSEtFpj pic.twitter.com/5y9f1UMUgi

“I hope it's the case that the Taliban will change their behavior, will recommit to the things that we've been talking to them about for months. In the end, this will be resolved through a series of conversations,” Pompeo responded. “Let me assure you, America's capacity to protect our nation from a terror attack emanating from that place again, that effort will continue.”

Later, on CNN's “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, Pompeo reiterated that he hoped the Taliban would communicate with the Afghanistan government and cease attacks. He noted that US forces had killed over 1,000 members of the Taliban in just the past 10 days.

The Taliban described the president's cancellation of the Camp David meeting as “anti-peace” in a statement later Sunday.