KABUL, Afghanistan — Even in a year when violence across Afghanistan did not relent over the winter months, the Taliban marked the official start of the spring fighting season with a huge truck bomb in the heart of Kabul on Tuesday.

Beyond the all-too-familiar carnage — at least 30 dead and more than 300 wounded — it also sent a message: The Taliban can attack the capital at will, and they have no intention of engaging in peace talks despite reports of internal rifts.

The location of the bombing, near the compound of an elite force that provides protection to senior Afghan officials, also demonstrated how vulnerable the government remains.

The Taliban have stretched Afghan security forces thin throughout the country, with fighting raging across multiple provinces. But complex urban attacks remain crucial to the insurgency because they bring what even major battlefield gains in remote areas of the country cannot: headlines, and a disruption of daily life that increases pressure on a coalition government already struggling with infighting and stagnation.