The Afghan Taliban are angry that the man whose job it is to kill their fighters has claimed to be making progress — so angry that they want to hold an unprecedented news conference to talk about it.
The Islamist group said on Sunday they wanted to call together international media based in Afghanistan to discuss the assertion made by General David Petraeus, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were overthrown by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001 as both sides step up their attacks, resulting in heavy insurgent casualties and soaring foreign troop deaths. But in recent months both sides have also stepped up the propaganda battle, flooding international and Afghan outlets with media statements.
On Sunday, the Taliban — who banned television during their rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 — described Petraeus’ recent comments to NBC television and the BBC about pockets of progress being made as “deceitful business” and “organized propaganda.”
In the statement e-mailed to media outlets — computers were also proscribed during their rule — the Taliban called for a news conference so it could reveal the “reality” to the world.
“The Islamic Emirate, in an attempt to provide the world with the awareness of the facts and figures and what the reality is, suggest holding a press conference of the world media correspondents in Afghanistan,” the statement said.
This was intended “to survey the overall situations and to have an assessment of the ongoing circumstances particularly in those areas Petraeus has claimed to have made progress in,” said the statement, written in Pashto and English.
Petraeus said the insurgents’ momentum had been checked in their southern strongholds, an assertion the Taliban described in a separate statement last week as “baffling.”
The Taliban often speak to media through appointed spokesmen, usually by telephone from undisclosed locations, and operate a regularly updated Web site. However, Sunday’s statement appeared to be their first invitation to hold a news conference since they were ousted and regrouped as a guerrilla force.
Their statement did not provide any further details about the conference and they were not immediately available for comment.
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