Afghans Celebrate as US-Taliban Reduction of Violence Holds

US halts offensives, following Taliban

With the US-Taliban reduction of violence going into effect this weekend, civilians in many parts of Afghanistan are taking to the streets to celebrate what could be the beginning of the end of the war.

The first two days have gone well, with some reports of clashes, but nothing substantial, and nothing to threaten the deal. Assuming things hold, the peace deal is to be signed on February 29.

The Taliban has ordered its fighters to follow the reduction of violence, and to avoid any territory under enemy control for the week. They did say fighters should remain in a defensive posture.

The US seems to be taking a similar tactic, announcing that they are halting all offensive military operations in Afghanistan as part of the deal. This is encouraging to the survival of the peace deal, as the US isn’t overtly ignoring it and looking for clashes that would justify cancelling the pact.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.