The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the United States to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan.
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press (AP) the group will independently deal with extremist groups such as the Islamic State.
“We are able to tackle Daesh (an acronym of ISIL's Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fi l-Iraq wa-sh-Sham), independently,” Shaheen said,
The position comes ahead of talks between senior Taliban officials and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar, according to AP.
Terrorism has already become an issue for the Taliban, as the group known as Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) recently claimed a suicide bomber attack on a mosque that killed dozens of people in Kunduz.
Recall, IS-K claimed responsibility for the October 8 attack in Kunduz, continuing its campaign of predation against the Hazara Shiite minority into a new era of Taliban rule.
The massacre, while the mosque was crowded for Friday Prayer, was the group’s second attack against a mosque in just a few days.