ISLAMABAD -- The Taliban say they don't want to monopolize power, but they insist there won't be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.
In an interview, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the group's negotiating team, laid out the insurgents' stance on what should happen next in a country on the precipice.
The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals -- advances made as the last U.S. and NATO soldiers leave Afghanistan.
This week, the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, said at a Pentagon news conference that the Taliban have "strategic momentum," and he did not rule out a complete Taliban takeover. But he said it is not inevitable. "I don't think the endgame is yet written," he said.
Memories of the Taliban's last time in power some 20 years ago, when the militants enforced a harsh brand of Islam that denied girls an education and barred women from work, have stoked fears of their return among many. Afghans who can afford it are applying by the thousands for visas to leave Afghanistan, fearing a violent descent into chaos. The U.S.-NATO withdrawal is more than 95% complete and due to be finished by Aug. 31.
Shaheen said the militants will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides is installed in Kabul and Ghani's government is gone.
"I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who [sought] to monopolize power in Afghanistan in the past were not successful governments," said Shaheen, apparently including the Taliban's own five-year rule. "So we do not want to repeat that same formula."
But he was uncompromising on the continued rule of Ghani, calling him a warmonger and accusing him of using his speech Tuesday on the Islamic holy day of Eid-al-Adha to promise an offensive against the Taliban.
Shaheen dismissed Ghani's right to govern, resurrecting allegations of widespread fraud that surrounded his 2019 election win.
Asked Friday about the Taliban demand that Ghani be removed as a condition of a peace agreement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki affirmed President Joe Biden's support for the Afghan president. She said Biden was scheduled to speak with Ghani by phone later in the day.
Meanwhile, the United States has conducted several airstrikes in support of embattled Afghan forces in recent days, U.S. officials said Friday, an escalation in U.S. involvement in Afghanistan as the Taliban seize more territory from government forces.
At least four strikes were carried out Wednesday and Thursday, including some in Kandahar, which is the birthplace of the Taliban and increasingly under pressure by Taliban forces, said one U.S. official, who, like another U.S. official, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
The airstrikes were conducted at the request of Afghan forces under attack by the Taliban or to destroy equipment stolen by the militants, including artillery and vehicles, according to the two U.S. officials.
An Afghan military official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the escalation of U.S. strikes has been "significant" compared with recent months, concentrated in the northern province of Kunduz and in Kandahar.
Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command who assumed responsibility for U.S. operations in Afghanistan this month, has said there is a "high standard" for authorizing airstrikes, which now must originate from aircraft flying from outside the country.
The process has become more complicated, he said, because intelligence capabilities have been reduced, along with the ability of U.S. troops on the ground to guide aircraft and munitions toward targets while assessing risk to civilians.
The United States will not support Afghan forces with airstrikes after the complete withdrawal at the end of August, McKenzie said, reserving the capability for militants planning terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland or against allies.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathy Gannon and Aamer Madhani of The Associated Press; and by Alex Horton, Dan Lamothe, Susannah George and Haq Nawaz Khan of The Washington Post.