Taliban refuse truce extension as attack claims at least 18 lives

KABUL — The Taliban refused to extend their ceasefire beyond Sunday night, dampening hopes for peace after jubilant scenes over the Eid holidays in Afghanistan.

The announcement came after a suicide attack in the restive eastern part of the country on Sunday killed at least 18 people in a crowd celebrating the Muslim holiday, the second assault in as many days to mar the unprecedented cease-fire.

Kabul extended its ceasefire with the Taliban by 10 days but said security forces would defend themselves if attacked, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani said.

The Afghan leader also requested the militant group halt hostilities but the Taliban said fighting would resume.

“The cease-fire ends tonight and our operations will begin, inshallah (God willing). We have no intention to extend the cease-fire,” Zabiullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesman, told AFP in a WhatsApp message.

He made no reference Ghani’s announcement.

The announcement has raised concern among some Afghans over the number of Taliban who have taken advantage of the cease-fire to enter cities around the country, including the capital to Kabul, and may still be there when the truce ends.

The Taliban’s decision to resume fighting came as no surprise to several Western diplomats in Kabul.

“If they extend the ceasefire, they will be compelled to talk, which I think the Taliban isn’t interested in. They’re looking for an outright victory,” one diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Before the Taliban’s ceasefire had even started, analysts had expressed cautious optimism that the truces, if successful, could help build trust between the government and the Taliban and lay the groundwork for peace talks.

The Islamic State group, which was not part of the truce, claimed it had carried out its second suicide attack in two days in the province of Nangarhar.

Provincial health director Najibullah Kamawal put the toll from Sunday’s blast in Jalalabad city, outside the office of the Nangarhar provincial governor, at 18 dead and 49 wounded.

“Some of the wounded are in a serious condition,” Kamawal added, suggesting the death toll could rise.

The governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, put the death toll slightly higher at 19.

He said a bomber on foot blew himself up among a crowd of Taliban fighters, local elders and civilians leaving the governor’s compound after attending a special event for Eid.

On Saturday, a suicide assault on a gathering of the Taliban, security forces and civilians in the province killed at least 36 people and wounded 65, Kamawal said.

The IS group’s Afghanistan franchise, which is particularly active in the east, claimed responsibility for that attack.

The group has killed hundreds of people in multiple attacks across the country since 2014. It has also fought the Taliban in some areas.

If they extend the cease-fire, they will be compelled to talk . ... They’re looking for an outright victory.”

Anonymous Western diplomat