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Afghanistan frees 490 Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan government says it has freed 490 Taliban prisoners from jails across the country in a gesture of good will as part of efforts to move a stalled peace process forward.

Feroz Bashari, government media center chief, told The Associated Press today that the freed Taliban insurgents were either ailing or had less than a year remaining on their prison sentence.

He says they are part of a group of 887 inmates that President Ashraf Ghani ordered freed to mark the Eid-al-Fitr holiday that followed the end of the holy month of Ramadan earlier in June.

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