Skip to main content

Mullah Omar tells 'invaders' to study history

KABUL: The Taliban's reclusive leader said in a Muslim holiday message Saturday that the U.S. and NATO should study Afghanistan's long history of war, in a pointed reminder that foreign forces have had limited military success in the country.The message from Mullah Omar comes less than a month before the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. This year has been the deadliest of the conflict for U.S. and NATO troops, and political support at home for the war is declining.Taliban attacks have spiked around Afghanistan in the last three years, and the militants now control wide swaths of territory. In his message for the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the fasting month of Ramadan, Omar said the U.S. and NATO should study the history of Alexander the Great, whose forces were defeated by Pashtun tribesmen in the 4th century."We would like to point out that we fought against the British invaders for 80 years from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately got independence by defeating" Britain, a statement attributed to Omar said."Today we have strong determination, military training and effective weapons. Still more, we have preparedness for a long war and the regional situation is in our favor. Therefore, we will continue to wage jihad until we gain independence and force the invaders to pull out," it said. The statement's authenticity could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site the Taliban frequently uses.Omar is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan but hasn't been seen in years.President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. focus on Afghanistan after what critics say were years of neglect under the Bush administration. Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to the country this year, and by year's end the U.S. will have a record 68,000 in the country.Militant ambushes have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly, and U.S. troops say the Taliban is no longer the ragtag force the military first faced in late 2001. Civilian deaths and a corrupt Afghan government have turned many toward the militants, who have pushed into northern Afghanistan this year for the first time.The Danish military said Saturday that one of its soldiers was killed after militants fired on troops on patrol in the southern province of Helmand. Denmark has lost 25 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the U.S.-led coalition in 2002. Separately, Hungarian officials said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle into a Hungarian convoy in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri. No troops were killed.The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask Washington for thousands more troops in coming weeks, but public support for the war is waning, and political leaders are questioning the need for more forces.Al-Qaida posted a new video this week threatening that if Germans do not push their political parties to withdraw the country's soldiers from Afghanistan, "there will be a rude awakening after the elections." Germany holds national elections Sept. 27.Omar's message said the international community has "wrongly depicted" the Taliban as a force against education and women's rights. It did not elaborate. Taliban militants force women to wear the all-encompassing burqa and don't allow females outside the home without a male escort.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...