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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban call to kill collaborators |
| 2010-07-20 |
| Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has reportedly issued a new directive in which he calls on his fighters to capture and kill any Afghan working for foreign forces. Nato said they stumbled upon the five-point directive after intercepting a letter that the Taliban chief wrote to his field commanders. The letter calls on commanders to fight foreign troops to the death and capture them whenever possible as well as instructing fighters to obtain more heavy weapons. The appeal also instructs Taliban field commanders to recruit anyone with access to foreign military bases in order to obtain information on international troops. One order in the letter specifically calls on fighters to capture and kill Afghan women who are "helping or providing information to coalition forces". If genuine, the letter marks a turnaround from a directive issued by the Taliban a year ago when Omar urged fighters to avoid harming civilians even if they had been captured. "We believe this guidance provides important insights into recent events as you may be aware the Taliban are causing an alarmingly high number of civilian causalities, and they have also begun attacking those who have chosen to serve the people of Afghanistan as public servants," Brigadier-General Josef Blotz, a spokesman of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said at a news conference in Kabul on Sunday. Blotz said he was "100 per cent sure" the letter was from the Taliban leader, although he could not reveal how it had been verified in order to protect Nato's sources. The Taliban could not be immediately reached for comment. Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up al-Qaeda members following the September 11 attacks in the United States. Omar, seen as the founder of the Taliban movement that emerged during the civil war of the early 1990s, has not been seen in public for years. He is believed to be in Pakistan. While other leaders are believed to be more involved in the day-to-day command of the insurgency in Afghanistan, Omar is still considered the spiritual head of the movement. |
| Posted by:Swanimote |