Fighting resumes in Afghanistan

IS CLAIMS MOSQUE BLAST THAT KILLED 12 WORSHIPPERS

Kandahar, May 16: Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces resumed Sunday in the restive southern province of Helmand, officials said, ending a three-day ceasefire agreed by the warring sides to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

There were clashes on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, which has seen intense fighting since the United States began its final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this month, an Afghan military spokesman and a local official said.

“The fighting started early today and is still ongoing,” Attaullah Afghan, head of the Helmand provincial council, said.

He said Taliban fighters attacked security checkpoints on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah and other districts. An Afghan army spokesman in the south confirmed fighting had resumed.

“They (Afghan forces) started the operation... do not put the blame on us,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The three-day truce initiated by the Taliban and swiftly agreed to by the Afghan government had largely held during the Eid holidays that ended on Saturday.

The calm was broken on Friday by a blast at a mosque on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, which killed 12 people including the imam leading Friday prayers.

The Taliban denied it was behind the attack which has been claimed by the Islamic State group, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist groups.

Kabul, May 16: The jihadist Islamic State claimed it carried out this week’s attack on a mosque on the outskirts of the Afghan capital that left 12 worshippers dead, SITE Intelligence Group reported.

The explosion happened inside a mosque in Shakar Darah district of Kabul province during Friday prayers and shattered the relative calm of a three-day ceasefire agreed between the Taliban and the Afghan government. IS said its fighters had placed an explosive device inside the mosque and detonated it after worshippers arrived to offer prayers on the second day of the Eid al-Fitr holidays, the US monitor of jihadist groups said late Saturday.

The bombing killed the imam of the mosque, who was leading the prayers.

Friday was also the second day of a three-day ceasefire agreed by the Taliban and the government to mark Eid al-Fitr.

The ceasefire ended late on Saturday and so far no fighting between the two warring sides has been reported.

The truce was only the fourth agreed pause in fighting in the twodecades-long conflict.

Violence had previously surged in several provinces of Afghanistan — including former insurgent bastions Helmand and Kandahar.