KABUL: The Taliban on Friday levelled a stinging verbal attack on the United Nations, which is relocating 600 foreign staff in Afghanistan after the militia attacked one of its guesthouses in Kabul.

In a statement on its website, the Taliban accused the United Nations of ‘suppressing and oppressing’ Muslims while supporting ‘arrogant invaders’.

The UN decision to temporarily withdraw 600 foreign staff — more than 50 per cent of the current total — comes in response to a Taliban attack on a hostel nine days ago in which five UN employees and two Afghans were killed.

Referring to a pledge by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to bring the perpetrators to justice, the Taliban accused the world body of ‘horrendous’ crimes in the eight years since the Islamist regime was pushed from power.

‘They have their share in the mass murders of the Afghan people and are the cause of the tragedies and sufferings of the Afghans.’

‘During the past eight years, never a day has passed without the Americans and Western brutal forces not committing crimes, murder or torture against our people or not encroaching on our national and religious values,’ it said.

More than 100,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and US President Barack Obama is mulling a request by his commander on the ground, General Stanley McChrystal, for tens of thousands of reinforcements.

On Tuesday, five British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman they were mentoring in an incident widely viewed as evidence of Taliban infiltration of Afghan security forces.

A spokesman for the British Embassy told AFP that a joint Afghan-NATO investigation into the killings, and the search for the gunman, are continuing.

In Kabul alone, around 100 civilians have been killed in suicide attacks in recent months for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Many more civilians than foreigners, including troops fighting under US and NATO command, are killed in Taliban attacks across the country. —AFP