Taliban rule out extension of ceasefire

KABUL, June 17 

Taliban militants headed into cities across Afghanistan on Sunday as they celebrated their Eid ceasefire with feasts and selfies, raising questions about what happens when the ceasefire ends at midnight (1930 GMT).

President Ashraf Ghani said he would extend a government ceasefire on Saturday and urged the Taliban to do the same, winning praise at home and international backing, but critics said his overtures had allowed the Taliban to pour into cities unchecked.

The Taliban said there would be no extension. Ghani had committed “a grave mistake” by allowing Taliban fighters to enter government-controlled areas, said Amarullah Saleh, a politician and former head of the National Directorate of Security.

“We don’t have mechanisms in place to mitigate the breach of ceasefire by the Taliban,” Saleh told Reuters.

Members of parliament opposing Ghani’s move said he had not consulted politicians and would be left with no recourse if the Taliban rejected his impromptu request. A senior Western diplomat in Kabul said Ghani’s decision was “a bold move” but questioned what happens if the Taliban do not extend their unprecedented halt in hostilities against government forces. “The consequences could be disastrous,” he said.

The Taliban said their members were expected to leave government-controlled areas before sunset.

Over the weekend, ecstatic men and children crowded around the soldiers and Taliban fighters, some of whom had checked in their weapons at the entrances to cities, and urged them to turn their ceasefire into a permanent peace. Governors and senior government officials hosted small feasts, played music to welcome the militants, coinciding with the close of the month-long Ramadan fasting season.

“There is no intention to extend the ceasefire,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters. “...Our normal operations will start tomorrow (Monday).” Ghani’s office has yet to declare a new timeframe for the extended government ceasefire.

Western diplomats based in Kabul said they were issuing fresh travel warnings for the whole country. “The Taliban can always use a ceasefire as an opportunity to attack foreigners,” one Western diplomat said. 

The Taliban are fighting US-led NATO forces, combined under the Resolute Support mission, and Ghani’s US-backed government to restore sharia, or Islamic law, after their ouster by U.S.-led forces in 2001. But Afghanistan has been at war for four decades, ever since the Soviet invasion in 1979. — Reuters

Suicide attack kills 18   

• A suicide attack in restive eastern Afghanistan on Sunday killed at least 18 persons in a crowd celebrating the Eid holiday, the second assault in as many days to mar an unprecedented ceasefire
• There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attack in Jalalabad city, outside the office of the Nangarhar provincial governor. The Islamic State group had claimed an even deadlier blast near the city a day earlier
• Nangarhar provincial health director Najibullah Kamawal put the death toll from blast at 18 with 49 hurt. “Some of the wounded are in a serious condition,” Kamawal added