State troops free dozens of hostages held by Taliban
KABUL — Afghan forces launched a lightning operation in northern Kunduz province early Monday, rescuing 149 people, including women and children, abducted by the Taliban just hours earlier, officials said.
Fighting was still under way later Monday in the area to free 21 remaining hostages, officials added.
The operation was a boost for Afghan forces, which have struggled to contain a resurgent Taliban on battlefields across the country.
On Monday morning, the Taliban ambushed a convoy of three buses traveling on a road in the Khan Abad district, and took everyone hostage, according to Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Rahimi added at least seven Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting.
The ambush came despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s announcement of a conditional cease-fire with the Taliban during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha this week.
The Taliban have stepped up their assaults in recent months, seizing entire districts across Afghanistan and regularly carrying out large-scale bombings and attacks that have killed scores of people.
Esmatullah Muradi, spokesman for the provincial governor in Kunduz, also confirmed the rescue of the hostages. According to Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the provincial council in Kunduz, the Taliban were likely looking for government employees or members of the security forces who usually travel home for the holidays.
Ghani’s call for the truce, made during celebrations Sunday of the 99th anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence, said “the cease-fire should be observed from both sides, and its continuation and duration also depend on the Taliban’s stand.”
On Saturday, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzadah, said that there will be no peace in the country as long as the “foreign occupation” continues. He reiterated the group’s standing position that the country’s 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States.
The government had previously announced a cease-fire with the Taliban during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June. The Taliban accepted that three-day truce but later rejected a call by the president to extend it.