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Taliban threatens to attack Europe, step up Afghan raids

by Habib Trabelsi Mon Oct 23, 2:39 PM ET

DUBAI (AFP) - The Taliban vowed to intensify raids against foreign troops in Afghanistan and also said it would attack civilians in Europe, in two separate threats made on television and the Internet.

Fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar pledged to step up incursions against foreign forces in Afghanistan, in an Internet message marking the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast.

"The coming months will witness an intensification and better organization of the resistance against the crusaders (in Afghanistan)," Omar wrote in the message, the authenticity of which could not be independently confirmed.

Initially written in Pashtun, it was posted in Arabic, with parts translated into English, on the official website of the "Islamic emirate of Afghanistan."

"I ask the mujahedeen to intensify operations against the crusaders... I congratulate the mujahedeen in Iraq for their powerful resistance and urge them to continue on this path," Omar said.

Around 40,000 foreign troops, including more than 30,000 with a NATO-led force, are in Afghanistan to help root out remnants of the Taliban militia, which was ousted from power by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The militants have stepped up their operations this year, fighting some of the heaviest battles with Afghan and foreign troops since they were driven from power.

Militants are also planning to launch deadly attacks on civilians in Europe in revenge for the 2001 invasion, a Taliban commander said on British television.

Mullah Mohammed Amin said on Sky News that resurgent militants had built up stockpiles of weapons and were bent on revenge against "the foreign invaders".

The Taliban now wanted to export terror to the West, he said.

"It's acceptable to kill ordinary people in Europe because these are the people who have voted in the government," he said in an interview conducted in the Pakistani border region.

"The ordinary people of these countries are behind this -- so we will not spare them. We will kill them and laugh over them like they are killing us and laughing at us."

Amin said the Taliban had been inspired by tactics used by insurgents in Iraq, namely remote-controlled bombs, landmines and suicide bombers.

"They are our best tactic," he said.

Fighters were sheltering in Pakistan and were also being helped by sympathetic local people, he told the British television channel.

In his Internet message, Mullah Omar also vowed to bring Afghan President Hamid Karzai before an Islamic tribunal.

"I also announce to you that the Crusaders' valet (Karzai) and his colleagues are in the process of looking for a way to escape... We are going to bring them before an Islamic tribunal," the Taliban leader wrote.

A purported spokesman for Omar said on October 7 that the militant chief was alive and leading the anti-government insurgency from inside Afghanistan.

"Mullah Omar has been in Afghanistan and still is in Afghanistan and will remain here to lead the jihad (holy war) against the American troops," said a man claiming to be Taliban spokesman Abdul-Hai Mutmaen.

Taliban threatens to attack Europe, step up Afghan raids  (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061023/wl_asia_afp/afghanistanunrest)