Peace remains elusive as Taliban shrug off talks

KABUL — With the Taliban shrugging off the Afghan government’s latest offers of a cease-fire and negotiations, peace seems as elusive as it has been for decades in this warbattered country, both for troops on the front lines and for civilians facing frequent attacks.

The Taliban have been gaining more ground in their annual spring offensive, ignoring President Ashraf Ghani’s calls for talks. Hoping to end the nearly 17-year war, he had offered unprecedented incentives, including passports for insurgents and their families.

Ghani had also offered to work toward removing international sanctions against the group’s leaders and allowing the Taliban to open official headquarters in the capital, Kabul.

But for that to happen, he stressed, a cease-fire must first be agreed on and the Taliban have to become a political group rather than an armed insurgency.

In June, the Taliban accepted a three-day cease-fire over the Eid al-Fitr holiday that caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a first for the group, but rejected a subsequent government call to extend it.

They maintain the only talks they would take part in would be with the United States on their key demand: the withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid recently reiterated the insurgents’ standing line that “the Americans are the ones continuing the war, supporting our enemies and bombing our country.”

“So, if there are talks, they should be with them (Americans),” Mujahid said by phone. “Otherwise, they won’t have any results.”

Since the start of the year, the Taliban have intensified their attacks. On Jan. 27, a suicide bomber drove an ambulance packed with explosives through a Kabul checkpoint, killing more than 100 people and wounding as many as 235.

The Taliban claimed that attack, as well as another, a week earlier, in which militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing 22 people, including 14 foreigners, and setting off a 13-hour gunbattle with security forces.

On Wednesday, two suicide bombers stormed an education department building in eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 10 people. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but both the Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate are active in the province.

At a June gathering in Kabul, the Afghan Ulema Council — an organization of Muslim clerics and scholars — issued an edict against suicide attacks, saying they are “haram,” forbidden under Islamic law.

As the gathering wrapped up and the clerics were about to disband, another suicide bomber struck near the site, killing seven people.

The Taliban have meanwhile expanded their reach in the countryside. According to Mujahid, they now control 54 out of 388 districts across the country, with five districts seized in this year’s spring offensive.