KABUL, May 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fourteen members of the Afghan
security forces were killed in two separate attacks Thursday in the
first deadly assaults officials have blamed on the Taliban since the
end of a three-day ceasefire.
The short truce ended Tuesday but an overall lull in the country’s
grinding violence has largely held despite the latest attacks, raising
hopes the militants and Kabul could soon start much-delayed peace
talks.
Taliban fighters attacked a checkpoint north of the capital in
Parwan province early on Thursday, said Waheeda Shahkar, spokeswoman
for the provincial governor.
“The Taliban have also suffered casualties,” Shahkar said,
saying seven members of the Afghan forces died.
District police chief Hussain Shah said Taliban fighters set fire to
the checkpoint, killing five security force personnel. Two more were
shot dead.
In the western city of Farah, Taliban gunmen mounted an attack on a
police post, killing seven policemen, provincial police spokesman
Mohibullah Mohib said.
“Eight Taliban fighters were also killed in the clash that lasted
for half-an-hour,” he said, adding four policemen survived the attack.
The Taliban have so far not commented on the incident.
Thursday’s attacks are the first such assaults Afghan officials have
blamed on the Taliban since the end of the surprise ceasefire offered
by the militants over the Eid al-Fitr festival.
Afghan security forces, however, carried out air strikes in the
south on Wednesday that police said had killed 18 “militants”.
According to Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission,
civilian casualties fell by 80 percent during the ceasefire.
Afghan authorities have responded to the ceasefire by pushing
forward with an agreed prisoner exchange, releasing some 1,000 Taliban
prisoners this week, with plans to release more in the coming days.
As part of the ongoing swap, the militants on Thursday released 80
Afghan policemen and soldiers they’d been holding captive, Taliban
spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.
A Taliban delegation was in Kabul on Thursday to further discuss the
prisoner swap with government officials, National Security Council
spokesman Javid Faisal said.
The exchange is part of a US-Taliban deal signed in February, which
excluded the Afghan government.
Kabul had already freed about 1,000 Taliban inmates before the
ceasefire, while the insurgents had previously released about 300
government captives.
The Afghan government has repeatedly called for extending the truce
and launching peace talks.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has made it a priority to
end America’s longest war, and in a bid to pull out foreign forces US
officials have been pushing the Taliban and government leaders to hold
peace talks. — NNN-AGENCIES
