KABUL – The Afghan government and the Taliban have begun a rare three-day cease-fire in honour of Eidul Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramazan.
The cessation in hostilities is actually two separate, unilateral cease-fires — one by the government, which began earlier this week, is expected to last about a week; and an overlapping three-day ceasefire by the Taliban.
This is the first ceasefire the Taliban has announced since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
In a message sent on WhatsApp, the Taliban said: “All the Mujahideen are directed to stop offensive operations against Afghan forces for the first three days of Eidul Fitr.”
However, the group sent a horrifying warning to other nations in the area by insisting “foreign occupiers are the exception” in the ceasefire, meaning the Taliban would still carry out attacks.
It stated: “Our operations will continue against them, we will attack them wherever we see them.”
The terror organisation also emphasised it would respond if it is attacked during the Ramazan holiday.
It went on: “If the Mujahideen are attacked we will strongly defend ourselves.”
Hours before the terror group announced the temporary ceasefire officials claimed it had launched two separate attacks on security forces in Afghanistan that killed at least 36 soldiers and police in total.
One of the assaults is understood to have taken place in the western region of Herat while the other took place in Kunduz, in the north.
The United Nations tallied 763 civilians killed and nearly 1,500 injured in just the first three months of the year.
