Fighting in Helmand ends three days of Eid truce in Afghanistan

Clashes in southern Afghanistan between Taliban and government forces on Sunday marked the end of a three-day truce for Eid Al Fitr.

The truce was marred by several attacks claimed by ISIS.

Taliban insurgents and government officials accused each other of resuming hostilities after a rare respite from increasing violence in the country, as US and other foreign forces prepare to withdraw later this year.

Attaullah Afghan, head of the Helmand provincial council, said Taliban fighters attacked security checkpoints on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the restive province, and some other districts.

"The fighting started early today and is still ongoing," he told AFP.

An Afghan army spokesman confirmed that fighting had resumed, and the Helmand governor's office said that 21 Taliban fighters had been killed.

The Taliban denied that it resumed fighting first.

"They [Afghan forces] started the operation … do not put the blame on us," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

The three-day truce initiated by the Taliban and swiftly agreed to by the Afghan government had largely held during the Eid holiday that ended on Saturday.

However, the calm was shattered by a bombing on Friday in a mosque north of the capital. This killed 12 people, including the imam leading the Friday prayers, and injured 15.

The Taliban denied involvement and blamed the government intelligence agency.

But on Sunday, the Afghan affiliate of ISIS claimed the attack, saying its fighters planted an explosive device in “a worship place for disbeliever Sufis”, killing the “apostate imam”.

The extremists also claimed responsibility for explosions at several electrical grid stations that left the capital Kabul without power for much of the three-day holiday.

In posts on its affiliated websites, ISIS claimed other attacks over the past two weeks that destroyed 13 electrical grid stations in several provinces. The stations bring imported power from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Attacks disrupted power supply in nine provinces, including Kabul, said Sanger Niazai, a government spokesman.

The Eid truce was only the fourth agreed pause in fighting in the two decades of conflict since a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.

The insurgents began their first direct peace talks with the government last year, as part of a deal with the US that includes the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said negotiating teams met briefly on Saturday in Qatar, which is hosting the talks.

They renewed their commitment to finding a peaceful end to the war and called for an early start to talks that have been stalled, he said.

Violence has soared in Afghanistan since the US and Taliban signed their agreement in February last year.

The deal called for all US troops to leave by May 1 this year but President Joe Biden, who took office in January, pushed the deadline back to September 11 – exactly two decades on from the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States, which led Washington to invade Afghanistan.

US Marines on the frontlines of a US Marine Corps base, near a cardboard sign reminding everyone that Taliban forces could be anywhere, in southern Afghanistan, December 1, 2001. Reuters

Afghan Army soldiers break the fast at their military base, during Ramadan, amid the coronavirus pandemic in Herat, Afghanistan, April 17. EPA

A man waits for customers at his shop in Kandahar, Afghanistan, April 15. EPA

Afghan security officials pat down vistors at a roadside checkpoint in Helmand, Afghanistan, April 15. EPA

Children collect recycleable waste to be sold for a living, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, April 15. EPA

An Afghan man who was injured in a bomb blast, receives medical treatment at a hospital in Arghandab district of Kandahar, Afghanistan, April 15. EPA

A US Army soldier near Command Outpost Pa'in Kalay in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, February 3, 2013. Reuters

A shoe polisher boy holds an umbrella as he waits for customers under graffiti on a wall in Kabul, Afghanistan April 15. Reuters

Captain Melvin Cabebe with the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division stands near a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an improvised explosive device near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 23, 2010. Reuters

Youths take pictures near an Afghan flag on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15. Reuters

Two Northern Alliance soldiers watch as dust and smoke rise after explosions at Taliban positions on Kalakata hill, near the village of Ai Khanum in northern Afghanistan, November 1, 2001. Reuters

Afghan policemen stand next to a captured Taliban fighter after a gun battle near the village of Shajoy in Zabol province, Afghanistan March 22, 2008. Reuters

US Marine Lance Corporal Chris Sanderson, from Flemington, New Jersey shouts as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, February 13, 2010. Reuters

Ryan Lemm salutes the casket of his father, NYPD officer Joseph Lemm, who was killed on duty in Afghanistan. New York, US, December 30, 2015. Reuters

A US soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior takes a break during a night mission near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province, Afghanistan, August 12, 2009. Reuters

US soldier Nicholas Dickhut, from 5-20 infantry Regiment, attached to 82nd Airborne, points his rifle at a doorway after coming under fire by the Taliban while on patrol in Zharay district in Kandahar province, Afghanistan April 26, 2012. Reuters

Sgt William Olas Bee, a US Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmsir in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, May 18, 2008. Reuters

Lesleigh Coyer, of Saginaw, Michigan, lies down in front of the grave of her brother, Ryan Coyer, who served with the US Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, US, March 11, 2013. Reuters

US President Joe Biden walks through Arlington National cemetary to honour fallen veterans of the Afghan conflict in Arlington, Virginia on April 14. AFP

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict, in which a resurgent Taliban have taken hold of large parts of the country.

Nishank Motwani, an independent Afghanistan expert based in Australia, told AFP the Taliban viewed the American withdrawal as a triumph.

"It gives the insurgents a proclamation of victory, bookends their removal and eventual return to power, and signals that the end is in sight for the Afghan republic in its current state," he said.

Government forces have continued to receive vital air support from US warplanes, and there are concerns over whether they would be able to hold back the insurgents without Washington's help.

"It is now going to be very difficult for us to conduct operations," an Afghan army officer told AFP last week after US forces pulled out fully from Kandahar Airfield, once the second-largest base of coalition forces.

"Our aircraft can't fly at night, so the night operations are going to be difficult."