Kabul, 29 Dec. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Foreign troops will be forced to leave Afghanistan by the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group's fugitive leader said in a rare, signed statement to the press on Friday."They came to Afghanistan readily but will be fleeing against their will... It is the history of Afghanistan that all foreign invaders are eventually defeated with much humiliation," Mullah Mohammad Omar allegedly said in the message.
The signed missive issued to the press by the Taliban’s spokesperson Mohammed Hanif to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha is a political statement on the Taliban's upcoming strategy which opposes any political mediation and is solely aimed at forcing foreign troops out of the country and ousting from power the Western-backed administration of president Hamid Karzai.
The statement coincides with the intensification of fighting in the volatile southern Helmand province after a brief lull during the winter season. Fighting could reach Kandahar as part of a Taliban strategy to conquer the city before they start what they hope will be an armed uprising across Afghanistan in the spring of 2007.
Over 4,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan in 2006, the bloodiest year since US-led troops invaded the country in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks ousting the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001. Omar, who has a 10 million dollar bounty on his head imposed by the US government, disappeared shortly after the toppling of the Taliban.
In his statement, Omar rejected a plan to hold Loya Jirgas - tribal councils proposed as a solution by Washington to end the violence in Afghanistan, which are backed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. He slammed the proposal as an evil attempt to hamper the Taliban-led struggle against foreign troops.
"Those who attacked Afghanistan want to trap us in the game of Loya Jirgas but no Muslim would agree to that…The Jirga has no representative status as all members would be nominated by the aggressors," Mullah Omar said in the statement.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are currently considering how to organise the Jirgas and deciding who will participate. Politicians in both countries want the Taliban to be included in the talks.
The commander also praised Taliban fighters on their success in their deadly 2006 campaign, warning them also to "take care of the fact that during their operations, the Afghan masses should not be harmed or affected."
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The message with the alleged signature of Taliban commander Mullah Mohammad Omar