Taliban militants will not take part in intra-Afghan talks until the Afghan government releases about 5,000 of their prisoners, a spokesman said on Monday, presenting a major possible barrier to ending the war.

Top US diplomat, Taliban co-founder to sign agreement in Doha on Saturday that could end US' longest war

The timeline of a weeklong partial ceasefire agreement between US, Afghan forces and Taliban ended up at 12:00am (local time) of Friday night. The weeklong reduction in violence will be followed with a peace deal to be signed between Washington and Taliban in Qatar, rolling out direct talks among Afghans and a gradual foreign troop withdrawal.

Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov is Moscow’s observer at the US-Taliban accord expected to be signed on Feb. 29. Mr Kabulov has had a major role in the Afghan peace process.

Sources close to Taliban say that all conditions of the reduction in violence were observed, announcing that they would sign a peace deal with the United States on Saturday February 29th.

Cases of militancy and attacks by armed insurgents on the security forces have been registered in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan while the Taliban group was observing the seven-day reduction in violence over the past couple of days, local media reported Wednesday.

It appears the U.S. military’s temporary truce with the Taliban is still holding despite a recent Taliban attack that killed at least six people in Afghanistan.

Five people including a civilian have been confirmed dead as the Taliban fighters stormed a security checkpoint in Charkent district of the northern Balkh province on Monday, district governor Salima Mazari said Tuesday.

A convoy of Afghan forces came under attack by gunmen in southern Kandahar province on Sunday.

The United States and the Taliban are closing in on a deal to end the two-decade-long war after the seven-day truce started on Saturday in Afghanistan.

Afghan acting defense minister confirmed Saturday that Taliban attacks dropped significantly during the early 12 hours of a seven-day reduction in violence negotiated between the militant group and the United States.

A week-long, partial truce came into effect across Afghanistan on Saturday, with jubilant civilians celebrating in the streets to mark a potentially historic turning point in the war, even as isolated attacks threatened to undermine the process. 

A United Nations report says Afghanistan passed a grim milestone with more than 100,000 civilians killed or hurt in the last 10 years since the international body began documenting casualties in a war that has raged for 18 years.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a statement late Friday evening, welcoming the reduction in violence by the Taliban.

The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a "proposal" for a week-long scaling-down in violence, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has told journalists in Brussels.