Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar called on Afghanistan's neighbors to help his militants oust the government of President Hamid Karzai and force foreign troops out of the country.
A roadside bomb, meanwhile, struck a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving four officers dead and six others wounded, NATO said.
Omar's message -- the authenticity of which couldn't be immediately confirmed -- said "neighbors should help Afghans drive Western forces from Afghanistan as they helped them during the Soviet Union invasion."
"They should abandon any kind of support and understand that they [Western forces] are a danger to the whole region," said Omar's statement, posted on a Web site that previously carried militant messages.
It was unclear when it was posted, though it included greetings for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which was expected to start on yesterday.
Afghanistan is going through its most violent period since the Taliban's ouster in the US-led invasion in 2001. More than 5,100 people -- mostly militants -- have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year.
The Taliban often compare their struggle to the war against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when neighboring Pakistan and Iran -- helped by the US and Saudi Arabia -- armed the anti-communist mujahedeen.
Some observers accuse rogue elements in Pakistan's security forces of supporting today's Afghan rebels, and US officials recently raised the alarm about Iranian weapons reaching the Taliban.
Karzai has offered peace talks with the militants and even positions in the government. But the Taliban and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the militant group Hezb-i-Islami, have rejected the overtures, saying international troops must first leave the country.
In his Internet statement, Omar said Karzai's offers were the result of the Taliban's resilience on the battlefield. He said Western forces should end "satanic" policies, including airstrikes that kill civilians, and withdraw.
But he also called on his fighters to be mindful of civilians during combat, suggesting the bloodshed is sapping support also for the militants among ordinary Afghans.
Insurgents often launch attacks from civilian homes and a constant stream of suicide attacks are killing far more civilians than Afghan or foreign troops.
Omar went into hiding after a US-led invasion toppled his Taliban regime in Afghanistan six years ago. Afghan officials have said he is hiding in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Pakistan says he is in Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, a roadside blast targeted a police patrol in Helmand Province's Gereshk district, killing four officers and wounding six other people, including civilians, NATO said in a statement.
In eastern Kunar Province, three rockets struck a house in the provincial capital of Asadabad, killing one young girl and wounding two other children, said Mohammad Jalal, the provincial police chief. He blamed the Taliban for firing the rockets.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of