Beberapa sebelum ia berbicara, 100 pejuang Taliban menguasai kabupaten Khak Afghan di provinsi bergolak Zabul, upaya paling gerilyawan guna menguasai beberapa bagian Afghanistan selatan dan barat.
Hours before he spoke, 100 Taliban members overran Khak Afghan district in the troubled Zabul province, the latest of several rebel attempts to exert control in parts of southern and western Afghanistan.