Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Gani on Sunday condemned the wave of militant attacks striking his country ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops, vowing: “We will never surrender.”

In a televised speech, Gani called on all religious, political and social leaders to condemn the violence. At one point, he even shouted: “Enough! No more!”

“This is unacceptable, it is un-Islamic, it is inhuman,” he said, referring the death of a university student in an attack targeting parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai and the suicide bombing at a volleyball tournament that killed about 50 people last month.

Gani’s words come just two weeks ahead of the withdrawal of most international combat troops, 13 years after the US-led invasion following the September 11 terror attacks removed the Taliban from power.

Ahead of the pullout, Taliban insurgents have launched a series of high-profile attacks across the country, including those targeting foreigners in the capital, Kabul. On Saturday alone, insurgents killed at least 19 people, including 12 clearing landmines in the country’s south and a senior official of the country’s Supreme Court shot dead outside his home in Kabul.

Gani has made few public remarks about the violence that has intensified since he took office in September, though regularly visits victims of attacks in the hospital and at their homes.

In his speech, Gani offered no specifics about his plans to combat the surging insurgents. His administration has embarked on a top-to-bottom review of the country’s military and security strategy, promising to remove provincial governors and other security officials. His foreign policy aims to pressure Pakistan into halting cross-border attacks by the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

The uptick in Taliban attacks comes after Gani signed a bilateral security agreement with Washington and a status of forces agreement with Nato that his predecessor Hamid Karzai declined to sign. US President Barack Obama has also approved an expanded combat mission authorising American troops to engage Taliban insurgents — not just Al Qaida — and to provide air support when needed.

Gani on Sunday also called for Muslim clerics and tribal elders to help stem a surge in deadly insurgent attacks that have rocked the country.

Afghanistan has been hit by weeks of regular attacks with at least 12 suicide bombs in Kabul alone in the last month.

“These attacks are no longer acceptable. They are not Islamic, they are not humane,” Gani told a gathering to mark United Nations’ human rights day, which was last week.

“Our society should raise our voice against it, I specially ask the Ulema (Muslim clerics) and tribal leaders and civil society members to speak out saying it is not acceptable,” he said, his voice rising in anger.

Many of the attacks in the last six weeks have targeted Nato and Afghan military convoys, foreign compounds and government facilities, but civilians make up many of the casualties.

On Thursday, a teenaged Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among the audience attending a performance at a French cultural centre in Kabul, killing one German national and wounding 15 others.

The play, entitled Heartbeat: the silence after the explosion, was a condemnation of suicide attacks.

Last month, around 50 people were killed and 60 others wounded when a suicide blast ripped through crowds gathered to watch a volleyball game in Paktika province in the east.

“What was the sin of our children in Yayakhil of Paktika? They were only playing volleyball. Here society must loudly say ‘it is enough’. It is not acceptable anymore,” Gani said.

“Afghanistan has been around for 5,000 years and it will be here another 5,000 years, nobody can break us apart.”

The latest bout of violence comes ahead of the official end of NATO’s combat mission on December 31 after 13 years of fighting that has failed to thwart Islamist insurgency.