Afghanistan Says Pakistan-Based Taliban Responsible for Kabul Airport Attack

Afghanistan's government has said the Taliban is responsible for a suicide bombing attack that claimed five lives at Kabul's international airport on Monday.

The attack reportedly took place at one of the checkpoint entrances to the airport midday on Monday, killing four civilians and one border police officer, as well as injuring sixteen other people.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani spoke out against the attack later in the day, accusing nearby Pakistan of harboring extremist Islamic cells and allowing terrorist attacks to take place in neighboring countries.

"Since I took office, Afghans have been waiting for Pakistan to show their tangible commitment" to defeating terrorist groups, Ghani said while speaking from his palace hours after the terrorist attack in Kabul.

"But attacks in the past two months and now in Kabul have shown us that it is still the same as the past. […] The sanctuaries of the suicide attackers are still in Pakistan," the president added.

Monday's attack in Kabul comes after a string of suicide bombings rocked the Afghan city last week and over the weekend, resulting in the death of over 65 people on Friday alone.

"Pakistan still remains a venue and ground for gatherings from which mercenaries send us messages of war," Ghani continued in his speech on Monday.

"The last few days have shown that suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan. We can no longer see our people bleeding in a war that is exported from outside," he added.