Taliban vows to win the war of Afghanistan

KABUL, : The Taliban’s senior spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has called on all foreign forces in Afghanistan to leave the country or be ready for defeat.

In a rare radio interview with the BBC by telephone from a secret location in the region, , Mujahid derided US President-elect Barack Obama for his call of a troops surge.

Fielding questions from BBC World Service listeners, he said Mr. Obama’s plans to deploy more troops would not defeat the valiant Afghans and Taliban would succeed in forcing the occupation forces to leave the country.

Mujahid answered listeners for almost an hour, and took follow-up questions from the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner.

He said the Taliban now controlled more than half of Afghanistan, and were running those areas in a more tolerant fashion than in previous years.

Mujahid told the BBC that the Taliban had stopped beheadings and were educating girls in areas under their control. He denied they were behind this week’s acid attack on schoolgirls in Kandahar.

The spokesman denied his movement financed itself from the drugs trade, a statement our correspondent says is unlikely to be taken seriously in Western capitals.

He criticized the US for attacking Afghanistan in 2001, and said there was no proof that Osama Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Al-Qaeda, he said, had been brought to Afghanistan by the Americans, not by the Taliban.

He said he had no idea where Osama Bin Laden was but did confirm that the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar - who has not been seen since 2001 - was hiding “in a secure place”.