KABUL, Afghanistan —The leader of the Afghan Taliban said Friday that a planned U.S. troop buildup will not end the protracted war in the country, and vowed to fight on until a full withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan.
The remarks by Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzadah came in a message ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan — something the Taliban issue every year to rally followers.
It also followed a suicide car bombing claimed by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Helmand province that targeted Afghan troops and government workers waiting to collect their pay ahead of the holiday.
By Friday, the death toll from that attack rose to 34 people, most of them civilians, provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak said.
In the Taliban message this year, the militant leader seemed to harden his stance, saying the Afghan government is too corrupt to stay on and warning of another civil war in Kabul — along the lines of the 1992 fighting when mujahedeen groups threw out the communist government in Afghanistan and turned their guns on one another. That conflict killed more than 50,000 civilians and gave rise to the Taliban.
The Taliban say they are waging war against the Kabul government and not targeting civilians. In their claim of the Helmand attack, they insisted no civilians died.
Zwak, however said, most of the dead in the attack in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, were civilians, although there were soldiers inside the bank at the time of the explosion. Witnesses said children were among the dozens wounded.
Earlier, the Defense Ministry had urged soldiers to collect their salaries from banks inside army bases. If they do go to banks elsewhere, they should refrain from wearing their uniforms, the ministry’s deputy spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish, said.
Akhunzadah, the Taliban leader, also boasted of allegedly growing international support, saying “mainstream entities of the world admit [the Taliban] effectiveness, legitimacy and success,” an apparent reference to reports of overtures by Russia and China to the Taliban amid concerns of an emerging Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan.
While the Islamic State affiliate’s stronghold is in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, the branch has managed to stage high-profile attacks in Kabul and other cities. The presence of battle-hardened Uzbek militants in the ranks also further worries Moscow.