The Taliban warned Afghanistan would become "a graveyard" for the United States after President Donald Trump cleared the way for thousands more American troops to be sent to the war-torn country.
"If America doesn't withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, soon Afghanistan will become another graveyard for this superpower in the 21st century," Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan, said on Tuesday. America should think of an exit strategy "instead of continuing the war", he added.
"As long as there is one US soldier in our land, and they continue to impose war on us, we, with a high morale will continue our jihad."
Mr Trump backtracked from his promise to rapidly end America's longest war in his first formal address to the nation as commander-in-chief late on Monday, though he offered no specifics.
He said he had concluded "the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable", leaving a vacuum that terrorists "would instantly fill".
While Mr Trump refused to offer detailed troop numbers, senior White House officials said he had already authorised his defence secretary to deploy up to 3,900 more troops to Afghanistan.
Earlier Mr Mujahid had dismissed the strategy as vague and "nothing new," saying, "For now I can tell you there was nothing new in his speech and it was very unclear."
A senior Taliban commander said Trump was just perpetuating the "arrogant behaviour" of previous presidents such as George W. Bush. "He is just wasting American soldiers. We know how to defend our country. It will not change anything," he said. "For generations we have fought this war, we are not scared, we are fresh and we will continue this war until our last breath."
The current Afghan government was "a US puppet," he added.
The insurgents signalled their intentions minutes after Mr Trump spoke by claiming the US embassy in Kabul had been the target of a rocket attack late on Monday. The rocket landed in a field in the city's diplomatic quarter, with no casualties reported.
Trump also lambasted US ally Pakistan for offering safe haven to "agents of chaos". A commander from the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, long believed to have links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment, said Mr Trump had proved the conflict was "a Crusade".
"His statement has proved that he wants to eliminate the entire Muslim umma (community)," he said.
Prior to Trump's announcement the Taliban had written an open letter warning him not to send more troops and calling for the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
