Taliban rule out extension of Afghanistan Eid festival ceasefire

[BHarwana]

either would be good, both would be even better.

those confessions are particularly interesting, if i can verify their authenticity and relevancy.

i have to get some sleep now by the way.

Good night I will post them when you wake up they will be here.

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Tears, hugs and selfies as Afghan troops and Taliban mark a truce for Eid

A widely welcomed three-day ceasefire between security forces and the Taliban in Afghanistan appears to be over.

The Taliban said its militants had been ordered to take up arms again on Sunday night - now the Eid festival had ended.

The government says it will continue a unilateral ceasefire for another 10 days, although security forces can defend themselves if attacked.

There were unprecedented scenes of soldiers and Taliban insurgents hugging each other during the ceasefire.

But the ceasefire failed to end violence entirely.

At least 18 people were killed in a suicide attack in the city of Jalalabad, outside the office of the governor of Nangarhar province while officials were meeting Taliban insurgents. Dozens were injured.

No group said it carried out the attack.

• What's life like under the Taliban?
• Militants 'threaten 70% of Afghanistan'
• Who are the Taliban?

On Saturday a suicide bombing in the same province, also on a gathering of Taliban and local officials, left 36 people dead. The Islamic State group said it carried out that attack.

What have the Taliban said?
The militants said there would be no extension to the ceasefire and fighters would be expected to leave government-controlled areas before sunset.

A militant hugs a member of the Afghan police in Kunduz

In a statement, the Taliban said it had called the ceasefire to enable ordinary Afghans to enjoy a peaceful Eid, "not in response to the ceasefire of the Kabul regime".

The group hailed the success of the ceasefire as a sign of its cohesion, and reasserted its determination to seek the "withdrawal of foreign invaders and establishment of an Islamic government".

President Ashraf Ghani's plea on Saturday for the Taliban to prolong its truce has been rejected.

His office said on Sunday that the government's extended truce would still allow Afghan security forces to "defend themselves against any attack".

What happened over the holiday?
In extraordinary scenes during Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on Saturday, militants embraced security force members and took selfies with citizens.

Both sides had declared a three-day truce for the occasion.

Afghans took selfies with the militants in Kabul

In his announcement on Saturday, President Ghani appealed to the militants to follow the government's lead and enter peace talks.

• Celebrating Eid around the world
• Counting the cost of Trump's air war in Afghanistan

During the ceasefire, Taliban militants were able to receive medical and humanitarian assistance and Taliban prisoners could see their families, he added.

The government also released some Taliban prisoners, he said.

How did the ceasefire come about?
The Taliban announced the three-day halt to hostilities earlier this month, days after a unilateral ceasefire was ordered by the government.

It is the Taliban's first ceasefire since the government they ran was toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion.

"It was the most peaceful Eid. For the first time we felt safe. It is hard to describe the joy," said Qais Liwal, a student in Zabul in southern Afghanistan.

In February Mr Ghani offered peace talks "without preconditions" and recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group if they respected the rule of law.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been killed since the US-led invasion drove the Taliban from power in 2001.


BBC

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

_________________
Afghanistan: Taliban resume fighting as Eid ceasefire ends

Taliban announce they will resume fighting on Monday as the three-day ceasefire on Eid-al-Fitr comes to an end.


On the final day of a three-day Eid al-Fitr ceasefire, the Taliban said they would resume fighting, despite President Ashraf Ghani's announcement that the government was extending its own ceasefire with the group by 10 days.


In the statement on Sunday, the Taliban repeated their preconditions for peace talks, including that they would only negotiate directly with the US and that foreign forces should leave Afghanistan.


"Our fighters will now resume their operations across the country against the foreign invaders and their internal puppets," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Al Jazeera.

In an unexpected move, Ghani on June 5 announced an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban until June 20, coinciding with the end of Ramadan.

On June 9, the Taliban announced that their fighters would stop attacking Afghan security forces for the three days of Eid for the first time in the nearly 17-year conflict.

Hundreds of soldiers and police officers have been killed since the Taliban launched their spring offensive in April this year in a bid to control large swaths of the country.

'Extreme happiness'
The first day of the ceasefire on Friday started with Taliban, civilians and officials offering Eid prayers together in mosques across the country.

Pictures and videos emerged on social media later that day of Afghans celebrating Eid with men identified by them as Taliban fighters.

"It was a moment of extreme happiness for us that we got to celebrate Eid this way - without any fear," Zahid Khan, a resident of Jalalabad told Al Jazeera.

The celebrations were cut short with a first attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) on Saturday that killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 65 in Nangarhar province.

The second attack, a suicide bombing in Jalalabad on Sunday, close to the governor's office in Nangarhar province, killed at least 18 people. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

"On the day of Eid when everyone came together, an attack by ISIL made many people cry for their lost ones," Nikzad, a Kabul resident told Al Jazeera.

"Peace is not easy to achieve in this country."

'Support and welcome of Taliban'
The Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Al Jazeera that the three-day ceasefire across the country proves that the group is "unified and trustworthy".

"The way our fighters were welcomed by the people proves that our demands and the nation's are identical - all want the withdrawal of foreign invaders and establishment of an Islamic government," he said.

Mujahid also stressed that no talks were taking place with the government.

However, Zahid Khan, the Jalalabad resident said he just wants peace across the country.


"Enough of bloodshed and tears, when peace is possible, we should sustain it," he said.


https://www.aljazeera.com/

________________

As Afghan Cease-Fire Ends, Temporary Friends Hug, Then Return to War

CHARDARA, Afghanistan — In the end, the truce was too short.

At sunset on Sunday, the final day of an unprecedented three-day cease-fire in the bloody Afghan conflict, Mohammed Islam, a Taliban fighter, stopped his motorcycle to say goodbye to Mohammed Edris, the Afghan police officer in charge of the bridge leading to the contested Chardara district in northern Kunduz Province. The two hugged.

Soon, these two men will find themselves with orders to attack, and with orders to defend. But for a brief moment, as they said their goodbyes on the bridge, they had experienced the possibilities of a reality other than war.

Before he drove off, Mr. Islam, 22, scrawny and with a long nose, described the joys of roaming the urban center of Kunduz city for three days during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. He has been with the Taliban for three years, and in all that time had not made it to the city.

“I had the kebabs, I had the sheeryakh ice cream, I hugged the police, I hugged the army ones — all of it was pleasant,” Mr. Islam said. “The people were very happy with the peace. Nothing comes of fighting. It’s all loss.


Want to read more ?? Click on the following link -- NY Times

 

[Path-Finder]

only afghans can bring peace and for that the yanks will have to leave.

 

[Max]

As Afghan Cease-Fire Ends, Temporary Friends Hug, Then Return to War
Image

Carrying the wounded to a hospital after a blast in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Sunday.CreditParwiz/Reuters


By Najim Rahim and Mujib Mashal

• June 17, 2018

CHARDARA, Afghanistan — In the end, the truce was too short.

At sunset on Sunday, the final day of an unprecedented three-day cease-fire in the bloody Afghan conflict, Mohammed Islam, a Taliban fighter, stopped his motorcycle to say goodbye to Mohammed Edris, the Afghan police officer in charge of the bridge leading to the contested Chardara district in northern Kunduz Province. The two hugged.

Soon, these two men will find themselves with orders to attack, and with orders to defend. But for a brief moment, as they said their goodbyes on the bridge, they had experienced the possibilities of a reality other than war.

Before he drove off, Mr. Islam, 22, scrawny and with a long nose, described the joys of roaming the urban center of Kunduz city for three days during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. He has been with the Taliban for three years, and in all that time had not made it to the city.

“I had the kebabs, I had the sheeryakh ice cream, I hugged the police, I hugged the army ones — all of it was pleasant,” Mr. Islam said. “The people were very happy with the peace. Nothing comes of fighting. It’s all loss.”

which killed 36 peopleand wounded 65, including Taliban fighters, was claimed by the Islamic State.

Much of the talk in Kabul has already turned to what the cease-fire achieved, if anything. Had the flooding of cities by Taliban fighters — most of them leaving their weapons at the gates, but some entering armed — increased the vulnerability of a government already struggling with suicide bombings in urban centers?

The cease-fire had come very suddenly. Neither the Afghan government nor the Taliban was prepared for how widely it would be embraced, especially by lower- and midlevel Taliban fighters. Government estimates suggest that about 30,000 Taliban fighters visited cities across the country during the three days, with close to 97 percent of them exiting before the end of the cease-fire.

For the Afghan government, such large numbers raised fears that among them were attackers or potential suicide bombers who may be now hiding in the cities and waiting for an opportunity to strike. In a brutal war, sceptics said, it was naive to open up cities to an enemy that had gone so far as detonating an ambulance full explosives.

Afghans take pictures with a Taliban fighter in Kabul on Saturday. The Taliban leadership expressed anger over these social interactions during the cease-fire.CreditMohammad Ismail/Reuters
Government officials said enough measures had been put in place to minimize those risks.

“Before the cease-fire, there were discussions with corps commanders and security officials of the capital and the provinces about possible scenarios,” said Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani. “Even during the cease-fire, the forces are on high alert and there is readiness for any kind of attack.”

For the Taliban, such enthusiasm among its foot soldiers for a brief period of normalcy directly contradicted a narrative the insurgent leaders often push: that their forces are ready to drag this war out as long as it takes.

Their fighters, and even midlevel commanders, not only widely spoke of how tired they are of the war, but continued to visit the cities — and appeared to enjoy their visits — on Sunday, despite clear orders from their leadership to avoid such visits after the bloody attack on Saturday.

Voice messages attributed to Taliban leaders, sent to the phones of their fighters and shared with a New York Times reporter, showed a sense of anger at how easily their side had mingled with Afghan government forces, and their excess in posing for selfies.

Despite the fears of the aftermath, diplomats and analysts said the cease-fire had injected a sense of possibility into a dormant Afghan peace process. Ordinary Afghans, as well as foot soldiers on both sides, got a brief taste of what life without war could be — something they had not been afforded for long years.

On his way from Kunduz city to visit his village, Mr. Edris, the police officer, said he came across Taliban fighters on motorcycles. They stopped the shared taxi he was traveling in to ask the occupants: Would the government harass them in the city? Those on board said most likely not, as it was a cease-fire.

Mr. Edris said he was nervous at the stop that he might be forced out of the vehicle, as Afghan forces traveling in Taliban areas often are. But the insurgents drove away toward the city after they got their answer.

Once in his village, long controlled by the Taliban, Mr. Edris said all of it felt unreal.

“One of my cousins pinched me.H e said ‘Is this you, or am I dreaming?’”


Najim Rahim reported from Chardara district, in Kunduz province, and Mujib Mashal from Kabul. Zabihullah Ghazi contributed reporting from Jalalabad.

with ceasefire Taliban wanted to show that they are unified force under one command . they destroyed the Ghani's myth about dialogue that Taliban have many factions and they act independently from each other and that meaningful dialogue is not possible with Taliban. hopefully this will pave road for reconciliation.

 

[FalconsForPeace]

Very sad. It seems both sides can negotiate for peace if the US is out the picture.