Afghan Government Calls for Permanent Truce with Taliban as Group Announces 3-Day Cease-Fire

The Afghan government called for a permanent truce with the Taliban on Monday amid increasing attacks after the group announced a three-day cease-fire for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that comes during the end of the holy month of Ramadan this week.

The cease-fire is planned to start Wednesday or Thursday, the Taliban said, as Afghanistan has experienced heightened violence. Hours after the Taliban announced a cease-fire, 11 bus passengers died in a roadside bombing. Responsibility for the attack has not yet been claimed.

Taliban fighters have been directed to halt all attacks in the meantime "to provide a peaceful and secure atmosphere to our compatriots ... so that they may celebrate this joyous occasion with a greater peace of mind," Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the group, told the Associated Press.

Afghanistan's presidential palace denounced the Taliban in a statement for the rising assaults but noted that the announced cease-fire will be observed.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The government in Kabul has faced rising attacks as U.S. and NATO troops pull out of Afghanistan.

The Taliban said the start of the cease-fire depends on the sighting of the new moon that determines the start of the holiday.

The announcement follows a brutal attack on a girls' school on Saturday in Kabul that killed as many 60 people, most of them students between 11 and 15 years old. The death toll from the attack continues to climb.

The Taliban has denied responsibility for the attack, which occurred in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi in western Kabul, where past attacks have been carried out by the Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan. Attacks in the area are most often claimed by the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan, but no group has claimed the attack on the school.

Just hours after the Taliban announcement, a bus in southern Zabul province struck a roadside bomb, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. At least 24 more people on the bus were wounded. Improvised explosive devices litter the countryside and have been used extensively by the Taliban.

The U.S. and NATO are withdrawing the last of their military forces from Afghanistan. The final 2,500 to 3,500 American soldiers and roughly 7,000 allied NATO forces will leave by September 11.

Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, was in Kabul on Monday although no details of his visit were immediately available.

Pakistan has been key to getting the Taliban to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government, as well as a deal that the insurgents signed with the U.S. last year under then-President Donald Trump. However, the Taliban-Afghan government negotiations have been in a stalemate for months, even as the U.S. has sought to accelerate the pace of the talks.

However, the Afghan government has complained about the presence of the Taliban leadership in southwestern Pakistan while Islamabad has expressed deep concern about the presence in Afghanistan of another violent militant group, the Pakistani Taliban, which is anti-Pakistan.