KABUL/BRUSSELS: Afghan security forces killed 10 Taliban militants as a ceasefire announced by the president took effect, an official said on Friday, and security forces said they would respond if attacked.

The 10 included five Pakistanis killed in the clash in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the official said, adding, “We finished the operation and will now follow the ceasefire plan.”

Four people were killed and five wounded by unidentified gunmen in a separate attack on a lawmaker’s Nangarhar home on Friday. The lawmaker was not at home at the time.

The ceasefire was welcomed by the United Nations, the United States and Nato, but some independent analysts expressed scepticism, with one diplomat calling it a “one-sided love story” as the Taliban, who have yet to respond, are deemed unlikely to reciprocate.

Some diplomats said it came as a bit of a surprise, showing that at one level the government wanted intensified air strikes, but on another it was offering an olive branch.

US military operations against IS in Afghanistan to intensify

The United States intends to step up military operations against the militant Islamic State group in eastern Afghanistan during a temporary ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban, senior US officials said on Friday.The Islamic State group has developed a stronghold in Nangarhar, on the porous eastern border with Pakistan and is among the countrys most dangerous militants since it appeared around 2015.

“(Operations against ISIS) will continue, in fact will be even intensified during this period of ceasefire,” U.S. Army General John Nicholson, commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018