Afghan president says forces can defeat Taliban

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said his security forces will weather the loss of most U.S. combat support and defeat a Taliban insurgency that’s inflicting record casualties.

“It’s going to be a difficult year, but at the end of it I think we’re going to come out much stronger,” Ghani told visiting reporters Monday in Kabul. He spoke hours after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack on a bus carrying government workers in the capital, killing one person. Elsewhere, Taliban attacks killed 16 police officers at checkpoints in northeastern Afghanistan.