Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has claimed responsibility in a video message for an August ambush that killed 10 French soldiers, an Afghan news agency reported Monday, saying it had seen the footage.
In the video statement, Hekmatyar also says he lost 10 men in the battle in Sarobi, the independent Pajhwok Afghan News agency says.
The insurgent Taliban movement, which has unclear links with Hekmatyar”s faction, has also claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest for the French military in 25 years.
Pajhwok told AFP that the video was delivered to its office in Peshawar in Pakistan.
In it, the leader of the Hezb-i-Islami faction names nine of his party members killed in the fighting and expresses condolences to their families, the news agency says.
He warns of “more guerrilla assaults on US forces besides the French soldiers,” the agency says in a report on its website.
And he also called on “anti-foreign forces” to stop using mobile and satellite phones during the fighting.
The mountain ambush in Sarobi, west of Kabul, was the deadliest ground attack on international troops since they were sent to Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the hardline Taliban regime.
