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[Courtesy Afghanistan List.]
Senior Taliban leader resurfaces, vows jihad
"Karzai is an American clerk"
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, May 4 (Reuters) - One
of the most senior
leaders of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime
vowed on Sunday to
continue a jihad against the
United States
and
its Afghan
allies.
Mullah Mohammad Hasan Rehmani, former governor of
the province of
Kandahar and a close associate of Taliban leader
Mullah Mohammad Omar,
was speaking to Reuters by satellite telephone
from an undisclosed
location in his first interview since the fall of
the Taliban in late
2001.
"The Taliban will continue their jihad and
struggle for peace,
implementation of Islamic sharia law, and against
America and its
agents," Rehmani said. "The jihad will continue
because American troops
are occupying Afghanistan."
Afghan officials say the Taliban appears to be
regrouping this year and
blame the hardline militia for a series of
attacks on American and
Afghan government troops in recent months.
Afghan government officials say Rehmani fled to
Pakistan with many other
senior Taliban leaders after the movement was
ousted, but he has kept a
very low profile since then.
A founder member of the fundamentalist militia,
he is perhaps the most
senior Taliban leader to have spoken publicly
since the regime fell.
Observers say his re-emergence may be a sign of
the Taliban's growing
confidence.
Rehmani also denounced Afghan President Hamid
Karzai as an American
stooge and a puppet of the powerful Northern
Alliance faction which
played a leading role in the Taliban's ouster.
"Right now Hamid Karzai's position is not that of
a president but that
of an American clerk and a toy in the hands of
the Northern Alliance,"
Rehmani said.
"We invite Hamid Karzai to seek forgiveness for
his sins from Allah,
like a true Muslim, and by joining the Taliban
movement prove that he is
a Muslim," he added.
ADVISER TO MULLAH OMAR
A senior Afghan government official described
Rehmani as a prominent
Taliban leader, and someone who had links with
Osama bin Laden's al
Qaeda network, blamed for the
September 11, 2001
attacks on the United
States.
"He was part of the leadership, high-ranking, a
trusted adviser to
Mullah Omar," the official said. "As governor of
Kandahar, he also had a
lot of meetings with al Qaeda."
Kandahar was the Taliban's spiritual home and the
base for its most
senior leaders during the fundamentalist regime's
five-year rule.
Rehmani lost a leg in a landmine explosion during
the struggle against
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
There are more than 11,000 U.S. and allied troops
in Afghanistan hunting
for Taliban and al Qaeda militants, although the
whereabouts of Mullah
Omar and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden remain a
mystery.
The Afghan government says many senior members of
the Taliban are hiding
in
Pakistan
and directing the resistance from
there. Karzai visited
Islamabad last month to ask for more Pakistani
help in tracking them
down.
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2003-05-05 Mon 19:13ct