| Mullah Mohammad Omar told his forces it was better to die with dignity than live with humiliation. According to Afghan Islamic Press, "Mullah Omar has advised and instructed everyone to fight to the death and not to bow down in front of brutality and blasphemy." Interfax quoted Shamsulak Orienfar, an official of Northern Alliance's embassy in Tajikistan, as saying that nearly 13,000 Taliban fighters and 6,000 foreign members of Al-Qaeda were entrenched around Kandahar. |