US announces direct talks with the Taliban

Four US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, hours after the US announced that it would hold direct talks with the Taliban.

The soldiers were killed by "indirect fire" from insurgents at Bagram air base, US officials said.

A condition for the talks, due to begin on Thursday in Qatar, was for the Taliban to renounce violence.

The talks are set to take place in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office.

Masood Aziz, a former senior diplomat at the Afghan embassy in Washington DC, spoke to the BBC about the prospects for the negotiations.