The World - News from July 12, 1989

Afghan President Najibullah directed his troops to lay down their arms for four days in observance of a Muslim holy period coinciding with the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Guerrillas rejected the four-day cease-fire, saying their “Eid (feast) will be when an Islamic government replaces Najibullah.” The guerrillas are keeping Kabul, the capital, under sustained rocket attack, and they launched a counterattack on the military base of Samarkhel, near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, which was captured by the government last week.