Taliban return to bombing
An explosion killed three people at a football game in eastern Afghanistan yesterday as the Taliban announced that it was resuming operations against government forces, in a severe blow to the historic peace agreement signed with Washington on Saturday.
The Taliban called off a truce that had held for the week leading up to the signing after President Ashraf Ghani balked at the demand he release 5000 Taliban prisoners before his own peace talks with the insurgents could begin.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said the ‘‘reduction in violence’’ period had ended and that military operations would resume against Afghan government forces. ‘‘As per the agreement, our holy warriors will not attack foreign troops but our operations will continue against the Kabul administration forces,’’ he said.
‘‘If our 5000 prisoners ... do not get released there will be no intraAfghan talks.’’
Mujahid acknowledged that ‘‘people are enjoying the reduction in violence, we don’t want to spoil their happiness’’, but added: ‘‘It does not mean that we will not take our normal military activities back to the level that we were before. It could be any time, it could be after an hour, tonight, tomorrow or the day after.’’
Immediately after he spoke the bomb was detonated at the football match in the eastern province of Khost.
It also wounded 11 people and was the first big attack on civilians since the truce began ten days ago. No one claimed immediate responsibility.
The Taliban’s resumption of hostilities against the Afghan government, while maintaining the truce with the Americans, plays to President Donald Trump’s self-interest in extracting troops before the US elections in November.
The Taliban has already driven a wedge between Kabul and Washington by refusing to give the Afghan government a seat at the negotiating table while
the terms of the agreement were struck. Taliban leaders hailed Saturday’s agreement as a victory: it sets a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan within 14 months and calls for negotiations on a power-sharing government between the Taliban and Kabul to open a week today. However, on Sunday, the day after the agreement was reached, Ghani said he had never agreed to the prisoner swap and would not do so as a precondition for talks.
‘‘There is no commitment to release the Taliban prisoners,’’ he said. ‘‘It was requested, it can be a part of the agenda of the negotiation, but it can’t be a precondition. It is not a matter of good faith.’’
In Washington, members of congress also cried foul, saying that they had been misled by Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, when he briefed them on the agreement last month.
Tom Malinowski, a Democrat, said that Mr Pompeo ‘‘made a commitment to me and other members of Congress that the Afghan peace deal would not require the Afghan government to release Taliban prisoners’’, adding that under the deal ‘‘for just one week of less shooting, the Taliban get 4400 US troops out and 5000 of their fighters back.’’
‘‘If our 5000 prisoners ... do not get released there will be no intraAfghan talks.’’
Zabihullah Mujahid
Taliban spokesman