{"id":142478,"date":"2018-06-17T20:37:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T20:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/taliban-rules-out-extension-of-afghanistan-eid-festival-ceasefire\/"},"modified":"2018-06-17T20:37:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T20:37:49","slug":"taliban-rules-out-extension-of-afghanistan-eid-festival-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/taliban-rules-out-extension-of-afghanistan-eid-festival-ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban rules out extension of Afghanistan Eid festival ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06b91sf.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionTears, hugs and selfies as Afghan troops and Taliban mark a truce for Eid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">A widely welcomed three-day ceasefire between security forces and the Taliban in Afghanistan appears to be over.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban said its militants had been ordered to take up arms again on Sunday night - now the Eid festival had ended. <\/p>\n<p>The government says it will continue a unilateral ceasefire for another 10 days, although security forces can defend themselves if attacked.<\/p>\n<p>There were unprecedented scenes of soldiers and Taliban insurgents hugging each other during the ceasefire.<\/p>\n<p>But the ceasefire failed to end violence entirely.  <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>No group said it carried out the attack.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What&#039;s life like under the Taliban?<\/li>\n<li>Militants &#039;threaten 70% of Afghanistan&#039;<\/li>\n<li>Who are the Taliban?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2>What have the Taliban said?<\/h2>\n<p>The militants said there would be no extension to the ceasefire and fighters would be expected to leave government-controlled areas before sunset.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  EPA<figcaption>Image caption                                      A militant hugs a member of the Afghan police in Kunduz                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a statement, the Taliban said it had called the ceasefire to enable ordinary Afghans to enjoy a peaceful Eid, &quot;not in response to the ceasefire of the Kabul regime&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The group hailed the success of the ceasefire as a sign of its cohesion, and reasserted its determination to seek the &quot;withdrawal of foreign invaders and establishment of an Islamic government&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>President Ashraf Ghani&#039;s plea on Saturday for the Taliban to prolong its truce has been rejected. <\/p>\n<p>His office said on Sunday that the government&#039;s extended truce would still allow Afghan security forces to &quot;defend themselves against any attack&quot;. <\/p>\n<h2>What happened over the holiday?<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides had declared a three-day truce for the occasion.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Afghans took selfies with the militants in Kabul                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In his announcement on Saturday, President Ghani appealed to the militants to follow the government&#039;s lead and enter peace talks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Celebrating Eid around the world<\/li>\n<li>Counting the cost of Trump&#039;s air war in Afghanistan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During the ceasefire, Taliban militants were able to receive medical and humanitarian assistance and Taliban prisoners could see their families, he added.<\/p>\n<p>The government also released some Taliban prisoners, he said.<\/p>\n<h2>How did the ceasefire come about?<\/h2>\n<p>The Taliban announced the three-day halt to hostilities earlier this month, days after a unilateral ceasefire was ordered by the government.<\/p>\n<p>It is the Taliban&#039;s first ceasefire since the government they ran was toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It was the most peaceful Eid. For the first time we felt safe. It is hard to describe the joy,&quot; said Qais Liwal, a student in Zabul in southern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>In February Mr Ghani offered peace talks &quot;without preconditions&quot; and recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group if they respected the rule of law.<\/p>\n<p>Tens of thousands of Afghans have been killed since the US-led invasion drove the Taliban from power in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>              The best way to get news on the go<br \/>Download the BBC News App.                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/bbc_news_logo.svg\"\/>                                       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/google_play_store.svg\"\/>                              <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/ios_app_store.svg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia captionTears, hugs and selfies as Afghan troops and Taliban mark a truce for Eid A widely welcomed three-day ceasefire between security forces and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}