Taliban reject Afghan offer to free 1,500 prisoners before talks

The Taliban rejected the Afghan government's attempt to resolve a spiralling crisis over the release of insurgent prisoners Wednesday, as Kabul warned it was ready to resume offensive battlefield operations. The decree issued earlier by President Ashraf Ghani had raised hopes that Kabul's offer to free 1,500 insurgents as a "gesture of goodwill" before talks begin, would prompt the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

But Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AFP that "5,000 prisoners should be released as a trust-building measure, and ... this should be before the intra-Afghan talks", refusing to budge from a longstanding demand of the insurgents.