Afghan’s Taliban Defiant

KABUL, Monday – The countdown to conflict in Afghanistan was ticking faster Monday with US warning that the Taliban’s days in power were numbered and the ruling Islamic militia threatening a protracted guerrilla war. As the Taliban admitted for the first time that it was shielding terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, the militia’s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, vowed late Sunday that his forces would emerge victorious from a long guerrilla war if attacked by the U.S. “The (Taliban) government may collapse, but it will be the same as during the time of the jihad (against the Soviet Union). New fronts will be established, just like against the communists,” Omar said in a broadcast on Taliban-run Radio Shariat. “You may capture the airports and the capital and the cities, but people will go to the mountains,” Omar said. “God willing, I believe that neither the US or their allies will be able to do anything. They will only find the same destiny as the communists.” His broadcast came shortly after the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said bin Laden was under their protection and being kept at a secret location. “Osama bin Laden is under the control of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and only security people know where he is,” Zaeef told reporters. “He is in Afghanistan in an unknown place for his safety and security,” Zaeef said. “I want to state categorically that Osama bin Laden will not be handed to anyone.” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had no reason to believe the Taliban was controlling bin Laden, but Washington warned it would move to throw the regime out of power unless it handed him over. Meanwhile Pervez Musharraf, president of Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan, told CNN that hopes the Taliban would comply with US demands were now “very dim.” He again pledged to help the US war on terrorism with intelligence-sharing, overflight rights and logistical support. AFP Ends