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Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) is alive and the future of the United States in Afghanistan (news - web sites) is "fire, hell and total defeat," fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was quoted as saying by a pan-Arab newspaper Friday. "We don't consider the battle has ended in Afghanistan ... The battle has begun and its fires are picking up. These fires will reach the White House, because it is the center of injustice and tyranny," Omar was quoted as saying by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat. "As for the United States' future in Afghanistan, it will be...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban supreme commander Mullah Mohammed Omar has held a meeting with other Taliban leaders to reorganize their resurgent campaign against U.S. forces and the Afghan government, a purported spokesman for the group said Sunday. The spokesman, who said his name was Sayed Hamid Agha, telephoned Associated Press reporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan and read out a statement. "Over the last few days we established a shura (council) under the leadership of Mullah Omar," Agha said. "The shura appointed four committees — military, political, cultural and economic to regulate all relevant matters." One of the two AP reporters...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  Soldiers were hunting top Taliban fugitive Mullah Mohammed Omar earlier this month when the mission tragically went awry, killing dozens of Afghans celebrating a wedding, defense officials said Tuesday.</p> <p>The Pentagon has previously declined to say what troops were doing in the area of Uruzgan province on the night when Afghans reported several villages attacked and 40 civilians killed by a U.S. warplane.</p>