Afghanistan strikes Taliban truce in remote area

Afghanistan has struck a ceasefire deal with Taliban insurgents in a remote province, a presidential spokesman said on Monday, the first move of its kind amid an escalation of violence ahead of elections next month. The truce was reached on Saturday in northwestern Badghis province, near the border with Turkmenistan, spokesman Seyamak Herawi said. The government wanted to make similar deals with the Taliban in other parts of the country in a bid to improve security for the Aug. 20 presidential election, he said. "As long as the ceasefire holds, the government does not have the intention to attack the Taliban (in Badghis). And the Taliban can also take part in the elections," Herawi told Reuters. Violence across Afghanistan this year reached its worst levels since the Taliban's austere Islamist government was ousted in 2001 and has escalated further since thousands of U.S. Marines began a major offensive in southern Helmand this month.