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Afghanistan |
Taliban resume fighting as Eid ceasefire ends |
2018-06-19 |
[Al Jazeera] On the final day of a three-day Eid al-Fitr ceasefire, the Taliban ...Arabic for students... said they would resume fighting, despite President Ashraf Ghani ![]() 's announcement that the government was extending its own ceasefire with the group by 10 days. In the statement on Sunday, the Taliban repeated their preconditions for peace talks, including that they would only negotiate directly with the US and that foreign forces should leave Afghanistan. "Our fighters will now resume their operations across the country against the foreign invaders and their internal puppets," Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid told Al Jazeera. In an unexpected move, Ghani on June 5 announced an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban until June 20, coinciding with the end of Ramadan. On June 9, the Taliban announced that their fighters would stop attacking Afghan cops for the three days of Eid for the first time in the nearly 17-year conflict. Hundreds of soldiers and coppers have been killed since the Taliban launched their spring offensive in April this year in a bid to control large swaths of the country. |
Posted by:Fred |