Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said yesterday they might attack any neighbor which gave assistance to US strikes on their country, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.
"If a neighboring country allows its soil or its air to be used in an attack against Afghanistan ... in that case the possibility cannot be ruled out that we attack that country," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued in Kabul.
"We'll be forced to send our mujahideen into their territory ... they will be responsible for the consequences," the Pakistan-based news agency said.
The Taliban is considered a pariah movement by the US because it shelters Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, who Washington has implicated in Tuesday's terror attacks in New York and Washington that killed thousands.
The US has threatened to retaliate against those responsible for the attacks and any country which shelters them.
It launched cruise missile raids on bin Laden's Afghanistan bases in 1998 after he was blamed for the deadly bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
A Taliban diplomat said yesterday that bin Laden was free to leave Afghanistan but would not be forced out.
"If the man wanted to leave of his own will, we will not stop him. But if he wanted to stay in Afghanistan, we cannot make him leave," the Taliban charge d'affaires in the United Arab Emirates, Aziz al-Rahman, told Abu Dhabi television in an interview aired yesterday.
Meanwhile Pakistan, one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban government, has promised full cooperation to the US in its hunt for the perpetrators, promising to do "whatever might be required," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.
Earlier, the Taliban's leader threatened a holy war, or jihad, against any country which attacked Afghanistan.
Mullah Mohammad Omar told the Taliban Voice of Shariat Radio in an address monitored by the BBC but plagued by poor reception that Afghanistan was an obvious target as a true Muslim state.
"Be ready for jihad," Mullah Omar said. He also said that Muslims should not fear death and should be ready to die for their faith.
The Taliban told all foreigners yesterday to leave Afghanistan.
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