 The fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar has urged his followers to step up suicide attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and remain united, a Taliban commander said.
Taliban commander Mulla Hayatullah Khan told Reuters late on Friday by satellite phone from Quetta an undisclosed location that Omar had contacted senior and regional commanders and congratulated them for carrying out “successful” attacks in recent weeks. He would not give details as to how and when Mulla Omar contacted the commanders. “Taliban mujahideen, through unity in their ranks, should continue and increase their guerrilla and suicide attacks on occupation forces and the infidels will soon run away,” Khan quoted Omar as saying. “Mulla Omar has ordered us to liberate our country, (and) we should step up attacks on occupation forces and their puppet Afghans,” he said.
The Taliban refer to Western-backed President Hamid Karzai and his associates as puppets. Mulla Omar, who has a $10 million US government bounty on his head, told his fighters to try not to harm innocent civilians during their offensives, Khan said.
Separately on Saturday, small blasts occurred in two cities of northern Afghanistan, witnesses said. The explosions, one outside a government building and one outside a shop, caused slight damage but no injuries. In Kabul, a passer-by sustained minor wounds in an apparently random rocket attack near a ministry on the city outskirts.
Taliban insurgents Saturday grimaced fearsomly and vowed a new round of attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the war-torn country, promising to focus more attention on the relatively-peaceful north. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the operation would target the countryÂ’s northern and southern parts. |