Multiple Blasts Kill about Dozen Afghan Civilians Despite Temporary Truce

Jamal Naser Barekzai, a spokesman for provincial police, said on Thursday that a roadside bomb struck a car in the Panjwai district of the southern Kandahar province, killing five civilians, including a woman and children.

In another incident, two children were killed and three adults wounded when a roadside bomb exploded beneath a taxi in the Maiwand district of the same troubled province.

Separately, at least two civilians were killed and 10 more wounded after a sticky bomb attached to a car exploded in northern Kunduz province.

Local officials said that at least two civilians were also killed by a roadside bomb in central Ghazni province.

The Taliban militant group recently captured a key district in Afghanistan’s central province of Wardak. The militants seized the Nerkh district, located around 40 km from the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, pushing government forces out.

However, a statement released by the Taliban on Monday said the group had instructed its militants “to halt all offensive operations against the enemy countrywide from the first till the third day of Eid.”

The three-day ceasefire announced by the Taliban and heeded by the government comes at a time when violence has sharply escalated across Afghanistan following a missed US troop withdrawal deadline.