NATO holds the Taliban responsible for the deadliest bombing in Afghanistan in more than a year, despite the Aghan militia's denials, a NATO spokesman said Wednesday. "I have seen that the Taliban deny responsibility. They do not get to wash their hands of this," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels. "The Taliban carry out terrorist attacks on a regular basis throughout the country... They cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for this attack, either directly or indirectly," he said. With the Taliban-led insurgency at record levels, the Islamist rebels were blamed for setting off a truck bomb in the heart of southern Kandahar city on Tuesday, killing up to 43 people and injuring 65, almost all civilians.