Taliban: 200 seek suicide missions

The Taliban commander said there was no chance of reconciliation with the U.S.-backed government.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A top Taliban commander said more than 200 rebel fighters were willing to become suicide attackers against U.S. forces and their allies -- a claim dismissed as propaganda Monday by Afghanistan's government, which said the hard-line militia was weakening.
In an interview late Sunday with The Associated Press, the commander, Mullah Dadullah, ruled out any reconciliation with the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and said the country's new parliament -- its first in more than 30 years, inaugurated last week -- was "obedient to America."
Dadullah spoke to AP via satellite phone from an undisclosed location. He said he was inside Afghanistan.
"More than 200 Taliban have registered themselves for suicide attacks with us, which shows that a Muslim can even sacrifice his life for the well-being of his faith. Our suicide attackers will continue jihad [holy war] until Americans and all of their Muslim and non-Muslim allies are pulled out of the country," he said.
Government response
Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, dismissed Dadullah's claims of rebel strength as "propaganda" and said Afghanistan had enough security forces to deal with the rebels.
"The Taliban are isolated. The Taliban have no power. They are using land mines and terror activities ... or suicide attacks. These kind of operations show they are not strong and that they are weak," Azimi told AP.
The hard-line Taliban regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 when it refused to turn over Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and stop offering a haven to the group after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
Dadullah, who lost a leg fighting for the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s, is one of the hard-line militia's top commanders, responsible for operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan -- and as such, a man wanted by the U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters.
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