San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Taliban to pause fight for Muslim holiday
Afghans have hopes for renewed peace process
KABUL — In a move that could inject life into a longstruggling Afghan peace process, the Taliban announced Saturday that they would halt operations against Afghan forces for the three days of the Muslim festival Eid al-Fitr.
Their announcement came days after the Afghan government declared a unilateral eight-day cease-fire, and for the first time it promised Afghan civilians, who have borne the brunt of the 17-year conflict, a temporary reduction in violence, which has been getting worse in recent years.
The Taliban announcement came after another bloody night in Afghanistan. In three provinces, more than 50 members of the Afghan security forces and pro-government militias were killed overnight, government officials said Saturday.
A strong push is underway to restart a lackluster peace process, which has repeatedly broken down. It is underpinned both by the heavy daily toll of the long war on ordinary Afghans and President Donald Trump’s limited patience for the costly U.S. involvement here.
Many diplomats and officials in Kabul saw the cease-fire as a small gesture of trust-building at best and warned that it was too early to pin too much hope on it as some of the most basic questions about a concrete peace process remained unresolved.
Although the Taliban statement did not acknowledge the government cease-fire, the moves by the two sides would overlap for three days.
Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan and begins Saturday.
The statement said international forces in the U.S.-led NATO coalition would still be the target of attacks. But the movement of international forces has been limited in recent years under a curtailed advisory role, with a smaller counterterrorism mission that largely focuses on remnants of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.