Taliban urges US and ISIS to fight elsewhere while it builds a modern state

The Taliban urged the United States and ISIS to stop fighting in other people’s countries and to move their familial disputes out of Afghanistan, after ISIS bombed Kabul airport resulting in Afghan casualties, and the US retaliated with a drone strike resulting in more Afghan casualties, in a direct breach of the Taliban’s sovereignty over Afghan lives.

Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar said in a statement that it is time those two find a different battlefield to fight in after they destroyed the country, urging them to leave the Taliban alone to flourish and grow and participate in the world economy as the number one exporter of opium globally.

He added: “These attacks are hindering our progressive mission, one that is ten times harder on us than others, since half of the population must stay at home.”

Abdul Ghani criticised the timing of the attacks by ISIS and the US.

“They had 20 years to release all this negativity, but instead attacked each other while the whole world was watching,” he said. “This childish behaviour is utterly unacceptable, presenting the Taliban as incapable of monopolising the violence in the country.”