Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 25, 2003
Taliban vows attacks after Omar meeting
Islamic Taliban commanders secretly met elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week and vowed to step up attacks on Afghan Government and US-led allied troops, a commander said yesterday.
Islamic Taliban commanders secretly met elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week and vowed to step up attacks on Afghan Government and US-led allied troops, a commander said yesterday.
Taliban guerrilla commander Mullah Sabir, alias Mullah Momin, told one media outlet by telephone from an undisclosed location that Omar appeared "delighted" by a recent spate of Taliban attacks.
At the meeting on September 17, held somewhere in southern Afghanistan, Omar urged around 50 top military commanders and former governors not to slow their activities, Mullah Momin said.
"I salute my Taliban mujahideen (holy warrior) brothers and the Afghan people. They have courageously carried out their jihadi (holy war) responsibilities for the last two years to defend Islam," Omar was quoted as saying.
"All the Taliban commanders should carry out the duties entrusted to them as a personal responsibility," he added.
Mullah Momin said he had started spreading Omar's message to other Taliban commanders who were not present at the meeting, adding that the leaders had agreed to "accelerate" attacks.
The US-led military force in Afghanistan yesterday said 10 rockets had landed near two of its bases in the southeast of the country the previous night, but caused no casualties.
Two of the rockets landed near a base at Asadabad and eight others near a base at Shkin, military spokesman Major Richard Sater told a news briefing.
Such attacks have generally been ineffective but have become an almost daily occurrence in Afghanistan in the past year. They have been blamed in the past on Taliban guerrillas.
In another incident on Tuesday, Afghan forces captured four Taliban guerrillas in the Suri area of Zabul province, Commander Haji Mohammad said, adding that a cache of arms had been found during the raid.
The United States toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan for providing a safe haven to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.