Taliban and U.S. Exchange Death Vows

16/05/2001| IslamWeb

WASHINGTON/KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The Taliban and the United States both wished death on their foes on Wednesday as the Taliban movement said it hoped ``mighty Allah will break America'' and the Pentagon chief said he would prefer Osama bin Laden dead rather than captured alive.As their rule over Afghanistan crumbled under nearly seven weeks of U.S. attacks, the Taliban vowed to fight to the death and said the world should leave them alone.
Long-time protectors of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban said they no longer had any contact with the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 mass killings of civilians in America.
``You should forget the September 11 attacks because now there is new fighting against Islam,'' Taliban spokesman Tayab Agha told reporters in Spin Boldak, a town near the Pakistan border.
As more U.S. marines headed toward central Asia to join the hunt for bin Laden, the spokesman said the Taliban ``hope mighty Allah will break America.''
President Bush cautioned Americans that although the tide may have turned against the Taliban, the war was far from over and could be entering a more dangerous phase.
``The most difficult steps in this mission still lie ahead,'' Bush told soldiers at a Kentucky army base on the eve of the American Thanksgiving holiday. ``We have made a good start in Afghanistan, yet there is still much more to be done.''
As Taliban power withered, attention focused increasingly on how the Saudi-born multimillionaire, accused of orchestrating the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed thousands of people, might be killed or captured in the dwindling area under his protectors' control.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made it clear the United States, despite Bush's earlier statements that bin Laden was wanted ``dead or alive,'' preferred the former.
Asked in a CBS television interview to be aired later on Wednesday if he would prefer bin Laden be killed rather than captured alive, Rumsfeld replied, ``Oh, my goodness gracious, yes, after what he's done. You bet your life.''
He added, ``But I don't think we have much choice in it anyway.''
Asked if he wanted Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who recently said he sought the ``extinction'' of America, to be caught dead or alive, Rumsfeld said: ``You bet!''