- DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arabic
al-Jazeera television said Thursday it had received a statement from ousted
Taliban leader Mullah Omar in which he vowed the fight would continue until
Afghanistan was "liberated."
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- "He (Omar) warned that holy struggle would continue
until Afghanistan is liberated and Islamic teachings were reinstalled,"
al-Jazeera said in a news bulletin.
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- The Qatar-based station, noted for broadcasting several
videotaped statements by Osama bin Laden, showed an unclear printed statement
that appeared to be in Arabic. It said it was issued on Sept. 11.
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- An al-Jazeera official told Reuters the statement, which
was faxed to the station, appeared to be genuine when compared to previous
Taliban statements.
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- Omar described America as "simple-minded and arrogant"
in the statement and said the "weak were happy because of the attacks
because of oppression of Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, Kashmir, Afghanistan
and the rest of Muslim countries.
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- "America was planning to attack Afghanistan before
the events of September and it attacked before it was sure who was responsible"
for them, he said.
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- The television did not say how the fugitive chief of
the militant Islamic Taliban could have delivered his message.
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- The United States accused bin Laden of masterminding
last year's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the Taliban of sheltering
him and his al Qaeda movement. An 11-month U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan
ousted the Taliban, but has so far failed to track down bin Laden or Omar.
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- U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he
was convinced Omar was still alive and blamed remnants of the Taliban militia,
which ruled Afghanistan for more than five years, for attempting to kill
him last week.
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