Taliban not to work with US to eliminate Daesh
SAY THEY CAN TACKLE EXTREMIST GROUP INDEPENDENTLY
The Taliban yesterday ruled out cooperation with the US to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue at the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August.
Senior Taliban officials and US representatives met in Doha yesterday to discuss issues, which among others, include reining in extremist groups and the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country. The Taliban have signaled flexibility on evacuations.
Greatest threat to US
However, Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press there would be no cooperation with Washington on going after the increasingly active Daesh group affiliate in Afghanistan.
“We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen said, when asked whether the Taliban would work with the US to contain the group. Daesh have carried out relentless assaults on the country’s Shiite Muslims since emerging in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. They are also seen as the greatest threat to the United States.
The weekend meetings in Doha are the first since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence, and the Taliban rose to power in the nation. The US has made it clear the talks are not a preamble to recognition.
Mourners from Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community buried their dead yesterday after a suicide attack on a mosque killed more than 60 people, marking the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country in August.
A gravedigger in the Shiite cemetery overlooking the northern city of Kunduz told AFP they had handled 62 bodies, and local reports suggested the final toll could be up to 100.
Scores more victims were also wounded in Friday’s blast, which was claimed by Daesh and appeared designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.
The regional branch of the sectarian Daesh, known as Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), has repeatedly targeted Shiites in Afghanistan. It is a Sunni Islamist group like the Taliban, but the two are bitter rivals.
Heart-wrenching scene
Daesh said the attack was carried out by a Uyghur Muslim suicide bomber who had “detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd” of Shiite worshippers.
The attack happened during Friday prayers — the most important of the week for Muslims — and residents of the city told AFP that hundreds of worshippers were inside.
In a heart-wrenching scene, relatives gathered around the newly-dug graves in Kunduz wailed inconsolably over their loved ones. “We are really hurt by what happened,” Zemarai Mubarak Zada, 42, told AFP as he mourned his 17-year-old nephew, who he said had wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor. “He wanted to get married. He wanted to go to university,” he said.
Images from the scene of the attack Friday showed debris strewn inside the mosque, its windows blown out by the explosion. Some men were seen carrying a body draped in a bloody sheet to an ambulance.
“It was a very terrifying incident,” said a teacher in Kunduz, who lives near the mosque.
“Many of our neighbours have been killed and wounded. A 16-year-old neighbour was killed. They couldn’t find half of his body.”
Aminullah, an eyewitness whose brother was at the mosque, said: “After I heard the explosion, I called my brother but he did not pick up.”
“I walked towards the mosque and found my brother wounded and faint. We immediately took him to the MSF hospital.”
The Taliban’s efforts to consolidate power have been undermined by a series of deadly Daesh attacks. The Taliban security chief accused the mosque attackers of trying to foment trouble between Shiites and Sunnis.
Daesh said the attack was carried out by a Uyghur Muslim suicide bomber who had ‘detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd’ of Shiite worshippers.