Peshawar, 16 March (AKI) - The fugitive leader of the hardline Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has vowed a fierce offensive against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan warning of "unimaginable attacks" to come in the summer months. The statement by the Taliban leader was read by Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif over the telephone from an undisclosed location and was qouted in the Pakistani based Afghan Islamic Press news agency. In the statement, Mullah Omar, for whose capture Washington has issued a 10 million-dollar-reward, said that young Afghans are volunteering for suicide missions against the US-led forces.
"Afghans [are] thronging centres of mujahadeen in groups to enlist their name for suicide attacks and other operations of Taliban resistance," the statement said. The Taliban leader also called on those who had not joined the "Taliban resistance....to consider this resistance against the crusader enemy as a part of their faith."
The statement also referred to the US president George W. Bush being "worried that the so-called elections and parliaments in Afghanistan and Iraq" did not trick Muslims around who are still aware that "Bush has been deceiving Muslims on hollow slogans of democracy, while on the other hand the US has been conspiring against the elected leadership of Hamas in Palestine." The statement also said: "The US and its alliesÂ’ attitude towards Iran is also against the claims of US of respecting democracy."
There are currently about 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters but the Americans are hoping to reduce the number of troops by several thousand as NATO forces take on more responsibilities, particularly in the south of the country, and the Afghan army becomes stronger.
