Taliban plan first cease-fire with Afghan troops

KABUL — The Taliban announced its first-ever cease-fire with Afghan forces Saturday, accepting the Kabul government’s offer to halt fighting at the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The militant group, in a statement to reporters, said it will impose a truce with Afghan troops for three days but will continue attacks on foreign forces. The United States has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Earlier last week, the U.S. military said it would observe the government cease-fire with the Taliban while continuing its activities against the Islamic State.

The Trump administration has increased the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in an effort to give a battlefield advantage to local forces, which continue to struggle despite more than a decade and a half of outside support.

“Mujahideen are instructed to halt offensives against local opponents, but defend if they are attacked,” the group said.

The truce will coincide with Eid, the religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

The Taliban also said it might release prisoners, including government troops, provided they agree to refrain from fighting insurgents in the future, the statement said. It is not clear how many Afghan troops the Taliban holds captive.

The unprecedented step from the insurgent group, which has been fighting foreign troops and their local allies since 2001, comes two days after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declared a weeklong cease-fire beginning Tuesday and invited the Taliban to respond in kind. Ghani’s surprise announcement underscored his desire to establish a peace process that could put an end to a conflict that even his backers say cannot be won militarily.

There was no immediate response to the Taliban’s statement from the U.S. military, which has a dual mission to support Afghan troops against the Taliban and separately conduct counterterrorism operations against extremists associated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Ghani’s cease-fire offer did not cover Afghan operations against the Islamic State or other hard-line groups.

Wadir Safi, a professor of international law and politics at Kabul University, said the Taliban’s decision was an acknowledgment that, despite their ability to pose a serious challenge to the state and maintain control over vast areas of rural Afghanistan, it would be equally unable to achieve its goals through force.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the truce was intended for the Eid holiday and would not affect the group’s larger objectives, which include the departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan. “Since our people are under occupation, jihad is incumbent on us,” he said in a message to The Washington Post.