Raids by Taleban kill 24 police, 17 soldiers

US anti-IS ops on

ISLAMABAD, June 9, (Agencies): At least 24 Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel have been killed in an attack by Taleban rebels on security check posts in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province, said officials on Saturday.

The Taleban rebels stormed security check posts in the Kolokh Tepa area of Qala-i-Zal district in Kunduz, a member of Afghan provincial council, Aminullah Adeen told media.

He confirmed that 24 ALP officials were killed and several weapons and ammunition taken away by insurgents during the assault.

Provincial governor’s spokesman, Niamatullah Timori also confirmed the ALP casualties during the overnight attack, adding that eight “militants” were also killed and nine others wounded in retaliatory fire.

He claimed that the situation was currently under control after the arrival of reinforcements and an investigating team has been dispatched to the area.

Spokesperson for Taleban rebels, Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the rebels had overrun six check posts in the district as a result of the assault, according to local media.

He said that the attack destroyed a tank and several weapons were seized by the rebels.

The attack came hours before the announcement by the rebels that it has ordered its fighters not to clash with Afghan security forces for the first three days of Eid ul Fitr (Islamic festival).

The Taleban’s favorable response comes after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday announced a ceasefire with the Taleban. The rebel group said its fighters would not launch attacks against Afghan security forces but that they would defend themselves if necessary.

The Taleban meanwhile stated that its three-day ceasefire did not include foreign troops.

Meanwhile, at least 17 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taleban fighters stormed a military base in western Afghanistan, hours before the group announced a ceasefire, officials said Saturday.

Ghani

Claimed

The Taleban claimed the Friday night attack, which Herat provincial governor spokesman Jilani Farhad told AFP killed 17 members of the Afghan security forces and wounded another.

There also were a number of Taleban casualties in the Zawol district ambush, Farhad said, but he could not provide exact figures.

Zawol district governor Mohammad Saeed Sarwari confirmed the attack and the death toll.

“The Taleban confiscated weapons following the attack,” Sarwari told AFP.

In a WhatsApp message, the Taleban put the death toll at 18 Afghan soldiers.

The Taleban announced its first ceasefire in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion on Saturday, with a three-day halt in hostilities against the country’s security forces that was greeted with relief by war-weary Afghans.

But the group warned the suspension of fighting for the first three days of Eid, the holiday that caps off Ramadan, did not extend to “foreign occupiers”, who would continue to be targeted by the militants.

The unexpected move came two days after the Afghan government’s own surprise announcement of a week-long halt to operations against the Taleban.

It is the first time in nearly 17 years of conflict that the militants have declared a ceasefire, albeit a limited one.

“All the mujahideen are directed to stop offensive operations against Afghan forces for the first three days of Eid-al-Fitr,” the Taleban said in a WhatsApp message to journalists.

But it added that “if the mujahideen are attacked we will strongly defend (ourselves)”.

The Taleban said “foreign occupiers are the exception” to the order sent to its fighters around the country.

“Our operations will continue against them, we will attack them wherever we see them,” it said.

Even a brief cessation of hostilities would bring welcome relief to civilians in the war-torn country, where they are paying a disproportionate price in casualties as a result of the conflict.

Resurgent

In recent years the resurgent militants, along with the Islamic State group, have stepped up their attacks on Kabul in particular, making it the deadliest place in the country for civilians.

“Only three days the Taleban are not killing us. The Taleban have won our hearts, if they strike a peace deal with the Afghan government, the Afghans will take them on their shoulders with love,” Shah Jahan Siyal, a resident of Nangarhar provincial capital Jalalabad, wrote on Facebook.

In related news, the United States intends to step up military operations against Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan during a temporary ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taleban, senior US officials said on Friday.

Ghani on Thursday announced the first unconditional ceasefire with the Taleban, coinciding with the end of the Muslim fasting month. The ceasefire excludes other militant groups such as Islamic State.

The Islamic State group has developed a stronghold in Nangarhar, on the porous eastern border with Pakistan and is among the country’s most dangerous militants since it appeared around 2015.

“(Operations against ISIS) will continue, in fact will be even intensified during this period of ceasefire,” US Army General John Nicholson, commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters.

The ceasefire could free resources for operations against Islamic State but some would remain to monitor the Taleban and for force protection, he told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States could now redirect significant military capabilities towards Islamic State and other militant groups.

“If the Taleban take full advantage of the ceasefire in the best interests of the Afghan people, then many of the surveillance assets we (have) overhead could be reoriented to ISIS-K, to al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorists that have no business being in Afghanistan in the first place,” he told reporters. The regional branch of the militant group is often called Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K).