A suicide bomber struck in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing at least 18 people.
It was the second attack in as many days targeting Taliban fighters, security forces and civilians celebrating a holiday ceasefire.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said another 45 people were wounded in the attack, which struck a crowd of people as they left the governor’s compound.
Saturday’s attack, which also took place in Jalalabad, killed at least 36 people and wounded 65, according to Najibullah Kamawal, director of the provincial health department.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they appear to be the work of the Islamic State group, which is not included in the ceasefire and has clashed with the Taliban in the past.
The local IS affiliate has a strong presence in the province.
The bomber on Saturday targeted a gathering of Taliban fighters who were celebrating a three-day truce coinciding with the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
After the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced a nine-day extension of the ceasefire.
There was no immediate word from the Taliban on whether they would observe the extension. The three-day holiday and the ceasefire end Sunday.
The chairman of the High Peace Council, a government body charged with negotiating an end to the nearly 17-year war, called on the Taliban to accept the extended ceasefire and join the peace process.
“We hope that the extension of the ceasefire will be announced by the leadership of the Taliban,” Mohammad Karim Khalili told a press conference in the capital, Kabul.
He said there had been an “exchange of views” between the government and the Taliban over the past week, without elaborating.
The Taliban have steadily expanded their presence in recent years, seizing a number of districts across the country and carrying out near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces.
But over the past two days Taliban fighters could be seen celebrating the truce alongside Afghan troops and other people in a number of locations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel