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Taliban threaten Rumsfeld, promise ‘flood of jihad’

DUBAI: The Taliban threatened on Thursday to kill US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and promised “a flood of jihad” against the Americans, in a statement posted on their website.

“We tell Rumsfeld: you may have escaped unharmed from our swords once, but you will not escape again,” said “the information office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” in the statement accompanied by footage of Taliban “victories” in Afghanistan.

The statement also promised “a flood of jihad against the Americans and their allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan”.

Two rockets landed north of Kabul and in a neighbouring village just hours after a brief visit by Rumsfeld on August 11 during which he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai. No one was injured in the attack and one of the rockets failed to explode.

The statement posted on the website (http://www.uploadyourimage.com/1/bannerFaroq.gif), was accompanied by three video films purporting to show “the Pakistani forces’ losses” from Taliban attacks.

“We give the Islamic nation glad tidings: jihad in Afghanistan is constantly escalating ... America claims that the mujahedeen are divided ... (But) thanks be to God, the mujahedeen are standing fast and fighting under the banner of Mulla Mohammad Omar,” the statement said.

The Taliban, a fundamentalist militia, were ousted from power in US-led military operations in late 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US, which Washington blamed on the Al Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden, who was being sheltered by Mullah Omar.

Both Omar and Bin Laden have so far eluded a nearly three year manhunt by thousands of US troops in Afghanistan. afp

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