NEWS

Mullah Omar warns Karzai

By Hamid Mir in Islamabad
June 26, 2006 17:14 IST
Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar has claimed that large areas of Afghanistan are still under his control.

In a audio message aired by the Pakistan television channel Geo News on Sunday afternoon, the Taliban leader said, 'Mullahsahib is not like (former king) Zahir Shah who fled to Rome and his army collapsed. My government has collapsed but I am still here and my army is still intact and we are resisting our enemies inside Afghanistan.'

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According to sources in southern Afghanistan, Mullah Omar recorded the message in the mountains of Helmand where he recently held a meeting of the Taliban's military council.

Without naming him, the Taliban leader warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai that 'you are nothing without the American army in Afghanistan. Don't forget that what happened to the Russian army in Afghanistan. You cannot

impose the ideas of foreigners in the country of pure Muslims.'

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He taunted Karzai, saying, 'you are ruling only the capital of Afghanistan not the whole country.'

'Losing the capital of Afghanistan does not mean that the Taliban are finished,' he said. 'The rulers of Kabul would not be able to run the country with the wisdom of others, and God willing they would be destroyed.'

Geo News obtained the audio message from Kabul, where it was received from Helmand on Saturday.

According to Taliban sources in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar recently established a media cell which will soon release a CD of the Taliban's military actions inside Afghanistan. This will include a more detailed speech by the Taliban's elusive one-eyed leader.

More news from Afghanistan

Hamid Mir in Islamabad

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