The Afghan Taliban will hunt down and punish anyone who takes part in next month's national assembly, where the possibility of long-term US military bases in Afghanistan will be discussed, the group warned in a statement on Wednesday.The unusually specific threat, in an English-language message from front man Zabihullah Mujahid, said participants will be pursued "all over the country and will face severe repercussions".
It called on Taliban supporters "to target every security guard, person with intention, participant and every caller of this convention."
The four-day gathering, known in Afghanistan as a 'Loya Jirga', will be held in the capital Kabul in late November, where it will bring together more than 2,000 politicians, tribal elders, community leaders, businessmen and civil society representatives from across the country.
The assembly will be a consultative process, and its decisions are not legally binding on the government.
Earlier this month, Taliban vowed to fight until all foreign forces have left Afghanistan.
President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
and his Western backers have agreed that all foreign combat troops would return home by the end of 2014, but the West has promised continued support beyond then in the form of funds and training for Afghan cops.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western soldiers in Afghanistan, the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
and other groups say violence is at its worst since US-led Afghan forces toppled the Taliban from power in late 2001.
NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
-led forces say they have seen a decline over recent months in attacks launched by gun-hung tough guys against their troops.
Safia Sediqi, a spokeswoman for the grand assembly, said she was unaware of the threat.
"I have not read the statement yet and it's early to comment about it," she said.