Afghan president announces conditional ceasefire with Taliban
Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, has announced a ceasefire with Taliban insurgents from Monday to mark the Eid al-Adha holiday, despite heavy fighting in recent days in the central city of Ghazni, The Guardian reported.
Taliban sources said their leaders had provisionally agreed to a four-day truce, although their supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, still had to give his final approval.
The militant movement said it would free hundreds of prisoners, without going into further details. Eid, the annual Islamic feast of sacrifice, begins on Tuesday, the report said.
As the source reminds, since the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the Taliban have made slow but steady gains and now control or contest more than 40% of the country.
The Taliban fought an intense battle with Afghan forces for control of the strategically important city of Ghazni this month. At least 150 soldiers and 95 civilians were killed in a five-day siege, which eased last week when Afghan soldiers backed by US forces pushed back the heavily armed rebels.