Mullah Omar called on his fighters to quit harming civilians.
However, the mullah did not say anything about bombing little girls schools.
Taliban militiamen in Kandahar in November 2001. Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar called on his fighters to avoid harming civilians in Afghanistan in an anti-government insurgency he said would never accept defeat. (Banaras Khan/AFP)
Mullah Omar in a tape released on Friday said his Taliban fighters would never give up and never submit:
Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, has promised to drive foreign forces out of Afghanistan in a new message timed to coincide with the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
Speaking on an audio-tape released on Friday by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency, Omar also called on his fighters to avoid harming Afghan civilians.
“I am confident that the enemy will run away in degradation and embarrassment,” Omar said.
“Afghans have always expelled their enemies by force and no enemy or aggressive force has left Afghanistan at its own will… They have committed aggression and we will drive them out.”
Omar also said the Eid festival, which began on Saturday, offered an example of sacrifice which could inspire his fighters.
An ideology based on sacrifice, such as the Taliban’s, “never submits and accepts defeat”, he said.
“You can see that present resistance and struggle in Afghanistan has amply proved the point.”
Bill Roggio has more on the ‘State of Jihad’ in Afghanistan and elsewhere.