Fighting continues mid-day Monday in a deadly attack that started Sunday evening on a prison in Jalalabad city in eastern Afghanistan. At least 21 people, including prisoners, have been killed, while nearly 50 were wounded, according to Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government.  The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group through its media arm Amaq news agency, started with a car bomb followed by gunmen storming the prison.    Khogyani said the security forces had re-arrested around 700 prisoners who tried to flee but did not say whether any inmates managed to escape. He also confirmed that at least three attackers were killed but several others were still inside the prison or holed up in nearby buildings from where they continued to attack the security forces. According to provincial officials more than 1,500 prisoners were inside the prison when the attack started.      Security officials said their operations are moving slowly in order to protect civilians in the area.    Various local health officials confirmed that dead bodies and wounded were shifted to Nangarhar regional hospital.   Nangarhar was a stronghold of the local chapter of IS, called IS Khorasan, before they were routed by sustained military operations of Afghan and U.S. forces. However, the group has continued to attack targets in parts of the country, including in Jalalabad and Kabul.    The Afghan Taliban have distanced themselves from the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said his group “had nothing to do with it.”    The deadly attack comes at a time when hopes were high that the Afghan government and the Taliban would this month begin direct negotiations to end their decades long conflict.Afghan security personnel gather in front of a prison after an attack in the city of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2020.The negotiations, scheduled to start in March of this year, have been stalled several times over prisoner releases.   Under a deal signed between the United States and Taliban, the Afghan government was supposed to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for 1,000 Afghan security personnel held by the militants.   President Ashraf Ghani announced last week that he would complete the release of 5,000 prisoners soon. While his announcement was followed by a ceasefire from both sides for the three-day Muslim holy festival of Eid al Adha – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Afghanistan – the dispute on prisoners continued.    The Taliban want the 5,000 prisoners to be those on a list the militants have provided the Afghan government. Ghani said 400 of the 5,000 were involved in serious terrorist attacks and he did not have the authority to release them. Instead, he wants to call a loya jirga, a traditional grand assembly, to decide their fate.   Meanwhile, he has released other Taliban prisoners, bringing the total to 5,000. It is yet to be seen whether the Taliban will accept this move. So far, the group has insisted on release of all the prisoners on its list before it will sit down for talks.   
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