Shelling Kills 3 Civilians, Injures 5 More North of Kabul

A mortar shell hit a home in the eastern Afghan province of Parwan on Saturday, killing three civilians and wounding five others, a spokeswoman for the governor said.

The Parwan governor’s spokeswoman, Wahida Shahkar, said Taliban* insurgents were behind the attack, which took place in the Siahgard district, north of Kabul.

But the Taliban militant group denied a role in the shelling and blamed it on government troops. Fighting resumed in Afghanistan after the three-day ceasefire between the national government and Taliban on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting period, expired on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the government released some 710 Taliban prisoners as part of President Ashraf Ghani’s commitment to free 2,000 militants in response to the Eid ceasefire. Another 900 Taliban* prisoners were released across the country on Tuesday.

Previously, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) called for a halt to fighting and the initiation of intra-Afghan peace negotiations in its latest civilian casualty report after preliminary figures revealed a significant increase in Afghan civilian casualties for April.

The government and Taliban* are attempting to strike a deal, which seeks to end nearly two decades of war in the country and facilitate American troop withdrawal.