Taliban returns with vengeance in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/2015/10/taliban-returns-with-vengeance-in-afghanistan/

Taliban returns with vengeance in Afghanistan
By Salman Rafi on October 9, 2015

While many hoped to see the Taliban stumbling after Mullah Omar’s death and a descent into disunity, the movement is showing renewed vigor and is restoring through a new wave of attacks on Afghan cities.

The potent attacks on Afghanistan’s urban hubs have coincided with an Eid message from new supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor demonstrating that the Taliban Movement of Afghanistan has lost little ground in its ongoing war with the US and the Afghan government.

Mullah Mansoor’s latest Eid message not only called for unity among the Taliban rank and files, but also repeated their unchanged terms for a so-called “resolution” of the Afghan conflict. These conditions include not only complete withdrawal of all occupying forces from the country but also repeal of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), signed with the US in 2014 by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

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“If the Kabul administration wants to end the war and establish peace in the country, it is possible through ending the occupation and revoking all military and security treaties with the invaders.” He went on to say that “The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) believes if the country is not under occupation, the problem of the Afghans can be resolved through intra-Afghan understanding.”