A bomb attack on a bus in southern Afghanistan killed 14 civilians today as the Taliban threatened to increase already rising suicide attacks.
The attack happened in the rugged southern province of Uruzgan; officials said it was not clear if it was a suicide attack or a roadside bomb.
The Taliban has accused Nato forces of genocide after the latest in a series of civilian combat deaths.
"We want to inform the foreign forces and their slaves that their defeat is inevitable in Afghanistan," the Islamist group's one-legged military commander, Mullah Dadullah, said.
Witnesses and officials say Nato air strikes in Kandahar province, where the Taliban began and remain strong, killed at least 50 civilians this week in an area the alliance had said it had cleared of insurgents in a recent offensive.
"The Taliban's mujahideen are ready to fight until death and in the coming days will increase their activities and suicide attacks to such an extent that the infidel forces will not get a chance to rest," Dadullah said.
He denied Nato charges the guerrillas used villagers as human shields in combat against foreign forces and accused the alliance of killing women and children.
"The Taliban will not let the killers of Afghan women and children rest in peace and will continue to target them."