Taliban agrees to ceasefire with Afghan forces for Eid

KABUL — The Taliban announced yesterday a three-day ceasefire with Afghan security forces for Eid, the holiday that caps off Ramadan, though it said operations against "foreign occupiers" would continue.

But the group warned its fighters would "strongly defend" themselves if attacked, according to a statement sent to the media two days after the Afghan government made its own surprise announcement of a week-long ceasefire with the militants.

It was the first time the Taliban had agreed to a ceasefire for Eid since the US invasion in 2001. "All the mujahideen are directed to stop offensive operations against Afghan forces for the first three days of Eid-al-Fitr," the Taliban said in a WhatsApp message. "But if the mujahideen are attacked we will strongly defend (ourselves)."

President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday declared an apparently unilateral weeklong ceasefire with the Taliban. It would last "from the 27th of Ramadan until the fifth day of Eid-al-Fitr," Ghani tweeted indicating it could run from June 12 to19.

The move came days after a gathering of Afghanistan's top clerics in the capital Kabul called for a ceasefire and issued a fatwa against suicide bombings and attacks. An hour after the fatwa was issued, a suicide bomber detonated outside the gathering, killing seven people.