Afghan President Ashraf Ghani demanded that Pakistan crack down on the Taliban after the Islamist group claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion near Kabul airport that killed five people and wounded 16 on Monday.
It was the latest in a wave of attacks in the Afghan capital over the last four days that have left nearly 70 people dead and hundreds wounded.
Witnesses said the target of the powerful blast was a convoy of armored vehicles transporting government officials. A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted "foreign occupation forces." He denied any Afghan civilians had been killed in the attack.
Ghani, who has made improving relations with Pakistan a priority on the grounds it may push the Taliban into peace talks, said that Islamabad had to tackle the bomb-making factories and suicide training camps being run on its side of the border.
"We hoped for peace, but war is declared against us from Pakistani territory; this in fact puts into a display a clear hostility against a neighboring country," he said.
Pakistan, which has in the past denied supporting the Taliban, again condemned the attack on Monday.
The Taliban’s escalation of violence has come after the group confirmed the death of its supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, which had been kept secret for two years. The new wave of bombings seems to suggest that the new Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour intends to send a message that there will be no letup in the insurgency.
Friday, bombs killed more than 50 people, including attacks on a U.S. special forces base near the airport as well as an Afghan police academy in Kabul.
On Saturday, a Taliban suicide bombing in northern Kunduz province killed at least 29 people.
