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AFGHANISTAN-UNREST LEAD
30 Afghan security forces killed in Taliban attacks: officials
HERAT, Afghanistan, June 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Taliban fighters killed
around 30 Afghan security forces in multiple attacks in western Afghanistan,
officials said Wednesday, two days after the group ended its ceasefire.
“More than half of the fatalities came from the ambush and roadside bomb
blasts that hit a reinforcement convoy,” Badghis provincial governor Abdul
Qhafoor Malikzai told AFP.
The other soldiers and police were killed when militants stormed their
bases overnight, Qhafoor added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in a WhatsApp message to
journalists.
Provincial council chief Abdul Aziz Bek confirmed the death toll and
accused the Taliban of taking advantage of the suspension in fighting to do
reconnaissance in the area.
“During the ceasefire the Taliban had sent informants to collect
information about the bases and plan the attack,” he told AFP.
Badghis governor spokesman Jamshid Shahabi told AFP that 15 Taliban
fighters were also killed and 21 wounded in the attacks on two bases in Bala
Murghab district.
The defence ministry issued a statement saying fighting in the area
continued as the Taliban faced “stiff resistance” from Afghan security
forces.
Further reinforcements had been deployed, the statement said.
It appeared to be the deadliest fighting since the Taliban returned to the
battlefield on Monday after refusing a government request to extend their
unprecedented three-day ceasefire.
President Ashraf Ghani announced over the weekend that the government’s
eight-day ceasefire, which had been scheduled to expire on Tuesday, would be
prolonged for another 10 days. The first formal nationwide ceasefire since
the 2001 US-led invasion had sparked extraordinary scenes of Taliban
fighters, security forces and civilians happily celebrating the Eid al-Fitr
holiday together.
But the jubilation appeared to alarm Taliban leaders, who on Sunday ordered
their fighters to stay at their posts or in areas under their control.
The Taliban hailed the truce as a success and a demonstration of their
“full control” over their fighters.
The government’s move to extend its ceasefire with the Taliban may buy
Ghani more time to work out how to keep the momentum going. Ghani said
Tuesday he was prepared to extend the ceasefire to a year “if the Taliban
accepts it”, according to a video of a meeting between the president and a
group of peace marchers who arrived in the capital on Monday.
The government’s ceasefire does not extend to the Islamic State group,
which claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks in the eastern province
of Nangarhar over the weekend that marred an otherwise peaceful Eid holiday.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1550 hrs