New Taliban leader Maulawi Haibatullah Akhundzada (above) on Saturday
called on the US to end its "occupation" of Afghanistan in
his first message since been appointed the militant group's supreme
leader in May.
"Admit the realities instead of useless use of force and
muscle show and put an end to the occupation," Akhundzada said
in a speech on the eve of Eid-al-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking
the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
"Our message to the American invaders and her allies is this:
the Afghan Muslim people neither fear from your force nor your
stratagem.
They consider martyrdom in confrontation with you as a
cherished goal of their life," Akhundzada said.
"You will not be able to frustrate the determination and our
Jihadic struggle, by your resorting to extending the time of presence
of your soldiers or of increasing military rule of engagement in
Afghanistan," Akhundzada said.
"You are facing up not a group or faction but a nation. You
are not going to be a winner," Akhundzada added.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's acting defense minister said
on Monday that the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the north of
the country that was bombed by U.S. forces was being used by
insurgents who were fighting government forces.
Masoom Stanekzai told The Associated Press in an interview that
Taliban insurgents and possibly Pakistani intelligence operatives
were using the facility in Kunduz city as a "safe place."
The hospital was bombed by a U.S. AC-130 gunship in the early
hours of Oct. 3, killing at least 22 people and injuring many more.
The main building was destroyed and the hospital has been shut down.
"That was a place they wanted to use as a safe place because
everybody knows that our security forces and international security
forces were very careful not to do anything with a hospital,"
Stanekzai said.
"But when there was on one of the walls of the
hospital, there was a Taliban flag — what can you think?"
The group, also known by its French acronym MSF, has repeatedly
denied the presence of Taliban fighters in the hospital compound at
the time of the attack.
Kate Stegeman, MSF's communications director in Afghanistan said
on Monday: "We reiterate that every staff member in Kunduz
working for MSF has repeatedly reported to us that there were no
armed people in the hospital at the time of the bombing."
Doctors without Borders has acknowledged that it treated wounded
Taliban fighters at the Kunduz hospital, but it insists no weapons
were allowed in.
Afghans who worked at the hospital have told the AP
that no one was firing from within.
But Stanekzai insisted that a Taliban flag had been hoisted on the
walls around the hospital compound and that the militants were using
it as a base.
"I am saying the compound was being used by people who were
fighting there, whether it was Taliban or ISI or whoever they were,"
he said, referring to Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence
agency, long accused by Kabul of supporting the Taliban.
"If the
fighting was not coming from there, that kind of a mistake will never
happen." Read more:
