Taliban rejects Afghan truce and grabs hostages from holiday buses

THE Taliban yesterday appeared set to reject the Afghan government’s offer of another holiday truce and took nearly 200 passengers hostage when they ambushed three buses travelling to the capital, Kabul.

While Afghans were still waiting for the militants’ official response to the proposal by Ashraf Ghani, the president, two Taliban commanders said the leadership opposed a repeat of June’s ceasefire.

Insurgent commanders told Reuters that the leadership believed any truce would only lengthen the US mission to back up Mr Ghani’s government. “Our leadership feels that they’ll prolong their stay in Afghanistan if we announced a ceasefire now,” one leader said. Another commander told The

Daily Telegraph last week that a truce was “unlikely”. An official statement on Sunday, to mark the forthcoming Eid ul-adha Muslim festival of sacrifice, made no mention of a ceasefire.

Both sides laid down weapons in June to mark Eid ul-fitr, with the threeday halt in fighting prompting unprecedented scenes of the adversaries embracing in Afghan cities.

Mr Ghani at the weekend offered another ceasefire for as long as the Taliban respected it, despite his government suffering its bloodiest week in years at the hands of the insurgents. The apparent rejection came as the Taliban took around 190 captives in Kunduz as they travelled by bus to Kabul for the start of the holidays.

A Taliban spokesman said the passengers were held after a tip-off that they included many members of the Afghan security forces. An Afghan military operation released most of the hostages, who included women and children, but the Taliban made off with around 20. Local elders were still trying to gain their release last night.

Taliban envoys met senior US officials in Qatar in July after America swallowed its long-term objections to direct talks with the militants.