Taliban prisoner release on hold

Baghdad, March 14: A military base in Iraq has been hit by a second rocket attack in a week, injuring three coalition troops and two Iraqi troops, a US army official said.

It was the 23rd such attack since late October on installations across Iraq where American troops and diplomats are based, with the latest rounds growing deadlier. None of the attacks have ever been claimed but the US has blamed hardline elements of the Hashed alShaabi, a network of armed groups incorporated into the Iraqi state. At least 33 rockets hit Iraqi air defence units at the Taji air base on Saturday, the country's military said, in one of the largest such volleys yet.

Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the international Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), confirmed on Twitter that rockets hit the al-Taji base early on Saturday local time. Caggins said damage assessment and an investigation were underway.

Iraq’s Baghdad Operations Command said earlier on Saturday that several Katyusha rockets landed inside the airbase. In a statement, the Operations Command said they knew where the rockets were fired from. “Our security forces have discovered the location of the firing of Katyusha rockets that targeted al-Taji airbase north

Kabul, March 14: The Afghan government has postponed its plan to release Taliban prisoners, a senior official said Saturday, throwing a precarious peace process between the insurgents and Kabul into deeper crisis.

President Ashraf Ghani earlier this week announced that the authorities would free 1,500 insurgents as a “gesture of goodwill” before negotiations begin, in an attempt to resolve one of the longrunning disputes that had roiled talks.

The insurgents had earlier rejected the offer and demanded that up to 5,000 captives are released ahead of talks, citing the US-Taliban deal signed last month that excluded Kabul. On Saturday Javid

of the capital Baghdad this morning. We discovered 7 rocket launchpads inside a parking garage in the area of Abu alEzzam,” it said.

The statement added that the owner of the parking garage, employees and all those present were taken in for questioning by Baghdad police.

Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Council, told AFP that “the prisoners’ release has been delayed” to allow more time to review their identities. “We have received the lists of the prisoners to be released. We are checking and verifying the lists, this will take time”, he said.

Ghani’s decree said the government would release 1,500 captives starting Saturday if the insurgents cut violence, with plans to free another 3,500 prisoners after negotiations begin. “We want guarantees that they will not return to fighting,” Faisal said. Since the US-Taliban agreement was signed in Doha on February 29, violence has flared up.

The Joint Operations Command described the attack as “brutal” and said the injured Iraqis were “all in a critical condition”.

There have been multiple rocket attacks in Iraq in recent weeks. Two US service members and one British coalition service member were killed and around a dozen others