No peace until foreign troops leave Afghanistan: Taliban chief

The so-called insider attacks incidents when an Afghan soldier or policeman turns his gun on fellow troops have been a serious problem in recent years.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation soldier has been killed in an attack near a major air base in eastern Afghanistan.

The competing messages come days after a group of dissident Taliban commanders denounced Mansour’s recent appointment to replace the Islamist militant group’s late leader, Mullah Omar.

A senior Afghan official said “dozens” had been lost, and that the seized vehicles posed “a big threat to our forces and they must be destroyed or recaptured”.

The soldier, identified as Mohammad Alim, and the assailant later fled the scene, and a search operation is underway to capture them. On Tuesday alone, at least 25 members of the Afghan army and police were killed in clashes, according to Interior Ministry data. Three officers were wounded in the explosion.

Mansour was appointed the new leader when Mullah Omar’s death was announced as the group grappled with peace negotiations-related infighting that triggered defections to the growing Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadist organization in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, fighting a bloody insurgency since a US-led invasion ousted them from power in 2001, have long said the departure of “occupying” foreign troops is a necessary condition for meaningful peace talks.

In a message ahead of Muslims’ annual religious festival the Eidul Adha, Mullah Mansoor said, “If Kabul administration wants peace to return to the country, it should annul all defence and security agreements with occupying forces”.

Mansour also urged the Taliban to unite and ignore “futile enemy propaganda” about disunity among their ranks.

Olomi said that Pakistan had tried to enforce its choice of Taliban leader on the group and that it is exploiting the insurgents for its own purposes.

“We and our people remained silent for two months and wanted the Ulema Council to peacefully resolve our differences, but Mullah Mansoor has told the Ulema Council he would not accept our demands”, Mullah Manan Niazi, the anti-Mansour coalition spokesman, told NBC News.