Bin Laden, Omar Alive And Safe

TEHRAN, Tuesday - Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on the US, are “safe and sound,” a Taliban official told the state IRNA news agency on Tuesday. The unidentified official said “Omar, Osama bin Laden and other top militia officials” are “safe and sound.” In Moscow, Novosti quoted a senior Northern Alliance official as saying Tuesday that Taliban spiritual leader Omar had fled Afghanistan for Pakistan. Mukhitdin Mekhti, a senior representative of the Northern Alliance’s government in exile in Dushanbe, added that Northern Alliance forces took control of Kandahar on Tuesday. Mullah Omar denied this. “In line with Omar’s directive,” the Taliban forces have moved “to the south,” IRNA cited the official as saying. “Some of the Taliban commanders were surprised and taken aback when Mullah Omar ordered (their) withdrawal from Kabul,” the Taliban official said, adding that the spiritual guide had also ordered them to prepare a “protracted guerrilla war.” The Taliban official confirmed that in the past few days, they had lost 40 percent of the areas under their control, IRNA said. Omar on Tuesday ordered his troops to stand and fight after opposition forces marched into Kabul, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. “I order you to obey your commanders completely. Do not move here and there ... Regroup yourselves. Put up resistance and fight,” Omar said in a radio address from his base in Kandahar about 4:30pm (1200 GMT). The Pakistan-based AIP said Omar assured his followers in the address on Taliban wireless frequencies that he was still in his southern stronghold despite reports he had fled. “Do not listen to the propaganda by opposition media. I am in Kandahar and have not gone anywhere. This is a fight for Islam,” he said. Taliban forces evacuated the capital of Kabul overnight, leaving it open to advancing opposition troops who arrived early on Tuesday morning. “Those who leave their positions are like chickens with their heads cut off which will eventually die and fall in a ditch,” Omar said. Despite reports of looting in Kabul, thousands welcomed the opposition’s arrival with cries of “God is Greatest”, shaking off the black turbans the Taliban ordered them to wear. One hard-core group of Arab fighters, perhaps Islamic extremists loyal to bin Laden, made a desperate last stand — but their bullet-riddled bodies were dumped in a nearby park. “Death to Pakistan, Death to terrorists,” chanted a cheering crowd, as prisoners were freed from Taliban jails and music was broadcast on local radio for the first time after being banned by the Taliban five years ago. Ends