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U.S.
soldiers clear one of many caves they found in the Ayubkhel Valley
in southeast Afghanistan
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ISLAMABAD,
Aug 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the U.N. announced
suspending road missions in southern Afghanistan Sunday, August 10,
following a series of attacks against its mission, Taliban vowed to
take the battlefield to the north.
Interviewed
by the English-language daily The News, Mohammad Amin
and Mohammad Mukhtar Mujahid, two Taliban spokesmen, said their
fighters had already begun striking targets in the north, and would
intensify the northern campaign in the coming weeks.
Taliban
fighters have been waging a campaign of grenade and rocket attacks
against foreign troops, and the U.S.-installed government of Hamid
Karzai for months.
Amin
named three former Taliban commanders have been positioned in northern
Faryab province to undermine the power of northern strongman and
deputy defense minister Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam.
"All
three have reached Faryab to organize resistance against Dostam and
other pro-U.S. commanders. You would hear about their military
operations in the future," he was quoted as saying.
He
identified the three as Mullah Mohammad Asim Mutttaqi, Qari Mohammad
Usman and Mullah Abdul Salam Haideri, Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Taliban
attacks have largely been concentrated along Afghanistan's southern
and eastern borders with Pakistan, triggering repeated allegations
from Afghan officials that fighters were being harbored or assisted by
Pakistan.
The
two spokesmen railed against the claims, saying there had been
numerous attacks also in Afghanistan's interior.
"Information
about Taliban attacks taking place away from the Pakistan border is
suppressed by the Americans and the Kabul regime," stressed
Mujahid.
"However
our attacks near the border with Pakistan are given prominence in the
media because it enables them to allege that the attackers had come
from Pakistan," he elaborated.
"Why
were the Americans and the Kabul government unable to bomb and capture
the Taliban while they were allegedly driving back 100 kilometers to
the Pakistan border?" Mujahid wondered.
"They
are telling lies to hide their failure to prevent such attacks,"
asserted the Taliban spokesman.
A
U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in December 2001 following
the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S.
But
in June, a senior Taliban commander told
IslamOnline.net that the group's elders appointed ten leaders,
including military commanders, to lead the new "Jihad" drive
against U.S. troops in the war-scarred Afghanistan.
The
News reported Tuesday,
June 24, that Mullah Omar has renewed calls for followers to step up
“jihad”
operations against the U.S. and other foreign occupation forces in
Afghanistan.
He
issued the call in an audio tape sent from his hiding place in
Afghanistan, The News quoted Mujahid as saying.
U.N.
Mission 'Suspended'
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U.N.
suspended road missions in southern Afghanistan
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In
a related development, the U.N. has suspended road missions across
much of southern Afghanistan following a series of attacks which left
seven dead and 15 injured, a U.N. spokesman said Sunday.
"All
U.N. missions to the border districts of Helmand and Kandahar
(provinces) have been suspended," David Singh told reporters at a
press conference.
"There
are also currently no missions to Uruzgan and Zabul (provinces) or to
northern Helmand except to (the capital) Lashkar Gah or northern
Kandahar," he said.
Six
Afghan soldiers and an Afghan working for the U.S. aid agency Mercy
Corps were killed in an attack Thursday on the district commissioner's
office in Dishu, southern Helmand province, "by about 40
suspected terrorist elements," Singh said.
"The
provincial authorities have sent forces to the area to investigate and
track down the offenders," he added.
In
Kandahar, 10 Afghan staff of the non-government organization
Coordination Humanitarian Assistance were attacked and beaten in their
offices in Maiwand district on Tuesday evening.
"They
were severely beaten and tied up when they refused to release the keys
to their newly-purchased vehicles. The armed men who attacked them set
fire to three vehicles," Singh said.
That
same evening five policemen were injured when a police road checkpoint
in Maiwand district was "attacked by suspected members of
terrorist organizations equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy
machine-guns and grenades."
Local
authorities have blamed the attacks on Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Some
20 months after the fall of the Taliban, its fighters continue to
launch regular attacks on the U.S.-led foreign forces and their proxy
government, particularly in the south and southeast which was its
former heartland.
