Afghan president: Taliban trying to show strength

The Taliban hung on in Ghazni for almost five days before US-backed Afghan forces flushed them out.

“Daesh were saying, “if we are not safe in the mountains, if our children are not safe in their houses, then we will not hold back from attacks on children”, said Allah Nazar Amini, the principal of the Malikyar school.

“The bombing, blamed on the Islamic State group, was the latest assault on Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which has increasingly been targeted by Sunni extremists who consider Shiites to be heretics”.

He says police finally took control of the partially constructed building where the gunmen had holed up in and from where they were opening fire at the nearby intel compound.

President Ashraf Ghani visited the war-weary city of Ghazni in the southwest of Kabul one week after the Taliban attacked the provincial capital and infiltrated into its key regions.

No group has claimed responsibility, according to local officials.

She said UNICEF again calls on all parties to the conflict “to adhere to and respect humanitarian principles, and ensure the safety and protection of all children”.

The city’s hospitals were overwhelmed in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s bombing as officials collected data on the casualties, leading to the confusion and the wrong toll.

Afghan authorities said on Thursday that the death toll from the attack, which hit an educational centre west of Kabul, was 34 and 56 were injured.

The clashes killed 11 soldiers and one policeman, with three soldiers wounded, said Haji Atta Jan Haqbayan, a Zabul provincial council member.

Afghan Defence Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami said earlier this week that the Ghazni attack had been carried out by Taliban with the support of external elements, including Pakistanis.

Ghani directed security officials to reconstruct Ghazni police headquarters and establish more security check points in the city to ensurethe safety of the residents. The Taliban issued a statement denying it was involved.

Mr Mattis said the Taliban lacked the strength to hold the territory they seized for brief periods.

At least two gunmen were killed in the attack.

Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance left by decades of war.

But the cost that that military confrontation exacts in civilian lives and disruption undermines the credibility of the government, undermines people’s confidence in the government, and that in many ways is the objective of the attacks.

So far, the aid group has retrieved 270 bodies but there was no breakdown or indication how many were Afghan security troops, Taliban fighters or civilians.

The Taliban launched a coordinated offensive last Friday, overwhelming the city’s defenses and capturing several neighborhoods.