Taliban, Afghan leaders agree on ceasefire in Badghis

KABUL: An Afghan official said Thursday a ceasefire had been negotiated with local Taliban leaders in a western province that had come under assault by the militants in their sweeping campaign across the countryside.

Badghis governor Hesamuddin Shams said no time frame had been set for a truce, which comes after the Taliban last week stormed the provincial capital Qala-e-Naw -- their first major attack on a city since US-led foreign forces began their final withdrawal from the country in early May.

"The ceasefire between Afghan security forces and the Taliban began at around 10:00am today (Friday). The ceasefire was brokered by tribal elders," Shams told AFP.

After taking hold of the rest of the province, Taliban militants swooped on Qala-e-Naw, where Afghan forces and Taliban fighters engaged in street battles. Afghan forces, which have been facing a crisis in the country, later said they had flushed the militants out of the city.

On Friday, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters in an operation to retake the border crossing with Pakistan.

A senior official on the Pakistan side of the frontier said heavy fighting could still be heard late Friday afternoon, and noted the Taliban’s white flags remained flying over the crossing.

"We have suffered one death and dozens of our fighters have got injured," Mullah Muhammad Hassan, who identified himself as a Taliban insurgent, told AFP near Chaman in Pakistan, about five kilometres from the border.

Reuters news agency said one of its photographers had been killed in Friday’s Spin Boldak fighting, citing an Afghan army commander.

Danish Siddiqui, an Indian national, was part of a team that shared a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 and had been embedded with Afghan special forces, the agency said.

The Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing is an economic lifeline for southern Afghanistan. The landlocked country depends on the crucial commercial artery to export much of its agricultural produce, such as almonds and dried fruits, while also serving as the entry point for finished goods coming from Pakistan.

Controlling the crossing will likely provide the Taliban with an economic windfall, allowing the insurgents to tax the thousands of vehicles that pass through the frontier daily.

The border was closed as of late Friday afternoon, with nearly 2,000 people massed near its gate on the Pakistan side, according to an AFP reporter.

The fight for Spin Boldak comes as the Taliban also closed in on the stronghold of long-time foe Abdul Rashid Dostum in the north, with the insurgent group’s spokesman saying the warlord’s militia had fled Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan province. The group had "captured the gate" of the city, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a WhatsApp message, adding: "Dostum’s militia left the city and fled towards the airport."

The deputy governor of Jowzjan confirmed that the Taliban had reached the gates of the provincial capital, but said government forces were pushing them back.