Taliban chief pledges to drive out foreign forces

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Omar pledged in a statement released Friday to drive out foreign troops from Afghanistan, as NATO and Afghan forces killed more than 10 of his fighters in the volatile south. The purported message from Omar, received by The Associated Press in Pakistan in an e-mail from Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif, urged the Taliban to "sacrifice" their lives and "never submit or accept defeat." "I am confident that blood of innocent people and mujahedeen will yield results," said the statement, timed for the Muslim religious festival of Eid al-Adha. "The enemy will have to quit the region with humiliation and disgrace." "Afghans have a history of expelling their enemies as no enemy and invader has quit Afghanistan willingly," it said.