Afghan forces, Taliban continue to clash even as historic peace talks start

Taliban and Afghan government forces clashed across Afghanistan even as the long-awaited peace talks in Doha started on Saturday underscoring the uphill challenge of settling a 19-year insurgency.

Talks between the two sides were to begin shortly after a US-Taliban agreement in February, but began only over the weekend after months of delays, caused in part by continuing Taliban offensives in the war-torn country.

Representatives from a number of countries who spoke at the inauguration of the peace talks called on the Taliban to announce an immediate ceasefire before negotiators sat down to find a way to end decades of war in Afghanistan.

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But to no avail.

The Taliban did not say anything about a possible ceasefire at the ceremony.

"With the start of intra-Afghan talks we were expecting the Taliban to reduce the number of their attacks, but unfortunately their attacks are still going in high numbers," Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said.

Aman said that, on Friday, the eve of the inauguration of the talks, the Taliban had carried out 18 attacks against government forces and installations across the country, inflicting heavy casualties.

Taliban attacks on Saturday night were confirmed by officials in the provinces of Kapsia and Kunduz.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the insurgent group attacked a convoy of Afghan forces that had arrived to launch an operation along a key highway in Kunduz. He added that security forces carried out air and artillery strikes on Saturday night in the provinces of Baghlan and Jowzjan.