Afghanistan’s Ghani condemns Taliban attacks as ‘inhuman’

KABUL // Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the wave of militant attacks that have rocked his country ahead of the withdrawal of US-led foreign troops, vowing: “We will never surrender.”

In Sunday’s televised speech, Mr Ghani called for Muslim clerics, tribal leaders and civil society members to condemn the surge in violence.

“This is unacceptable, it is un-Islamic, it is inhuman,” he said, referring to the death of a university student in an attack targeting parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai, and the suicide bombing of a volleyball tournament that killed about 50 people last month.

“What was the sin of our children in Yayakhil of Paktika? They were only playing volleyball. Here society must loudly say ‘it is enough’. It is not acceptable anymore.”

Speaking at a gathering to mark last week’s United Nations’ human rights day, the president said: “Afghanistan has been around for 5,000 years and it will be here another 5,000 years, nobody can break us apart.”

Mr Ghani’s speech came just two weeks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops, 13 years after the US-led invasion that removed the Taliban from power.

Ahead of the pullout, Taliban insurgents have launched a series of high-profile attacks across the country, targeting Nato and Afghan military convoys and government facilities, as well as foreign compounds in Kabul. The capital has faced 12 suicide bomb attacks in the last month alone.

On Thursday, a teenage Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among the audience attending a performance at a French cultural centre in the city, killing one German national and wounding 15 others.

The play, entitled “Heartbeat: the silence after the explosion”, was a condemnation of suicide attacks.

Two days later, insurgents killed at least 19 people across the country, 12 of whom were clearing land mines in the country’s south. Seven soldiers were killed by a suicide bomb attack on an Afghan military bus in Kabul, while a senior official of the country’s Supreme Court was shot dead outside his home in the city.

The recent violence has heightened fears that Afghanistan could tip into further turmoil next year when just 13,000 international troops will remain in the country.

The main remit of these troops will be to train the national army and police, rather than fight the Taliban.

US President Barack Obama recently expanded the mission of remaining American troops, however, authorising them to engage Taliban insurgents - not just Al Qaeda - and to provide air support when needed.

Mr Ghani has made few public remarks about the violence that has intensified since he took office in September, though regularly visits victims of attacks in hospitals and at their homes.

In his speech on Sunday, the president offered no specifics about his plans to combat the insurgents.

Mr Ghani’s administration has embarked on a top-to-bottom review of the country’s military and security strategy, promising to remove provincial governors and other security officials. His foreign policy aims to pressure Pakistan into halting cross-border attacks by the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

The recent surge in Taliban attacks comes after Mr Ghani signed a bilateral security agreement with Washington and a status of forces agreement with Nato that his predecessor Hamid Karzai declined to sign.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse