AFGHANISTAN: Taliban commander vows to unleash thousands of suicide bombers against U.S and Nato forces

The Taliban promised a spring offensive of thousands of suicide bombers as the United States, doubling its combat troops in Afghanistan, took over command of the 33,000-strong NATO force in the country. The Taliban promised a spring offensive of thousands of suicide bombers as the United States, doubling its combat troops in Afghanistan, took over command of the 33,000-strong NATO force in the country on Sunday. The Taliban warned 2007 will be "the bloodiest year for foreign troops", saying they have 2,000 suicide bombers ready for an offensive when the winter snows melt in a few months. "Our Mujahideen (holy warriors) have made 80 percent preparations to fight American and foreign forces in the coming summer and we are about to start a war," Mullah Hayatullah Khan, a 35-year-old black-bearded guerrilla leader, told Reuters at a secret base in the east on Saturday (February 3). Khan says the 2,000 people are just 40 percent of fighters preparing to become suicide bombers, a tactic almost unheard of here until last year as militants copied Iraq. A suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack on a convoy of NATO troops in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Sunday (February 4). No one else was hurt in the blast which occurred when the bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into the convoy on a main road in Kandahar, the bastion of the militants and nicknamed "bomb city" because of constant rebel attacks. The latest attack took place as U.S. General Dan McNeill took over the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Analysts say McNeill takes over ISAF at a pivotal time. Last year was the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001. More than 4,000 people died, a quarter of them civilians and 170 foreign soldiers. The United States has effectively doubled its combat troops on the ground by extending the tours of duty for some soldiers by four months, which will also provide a rapid reaction force. President George W. Bush is asking Congress for an extra $10.6 billion over two years for the Afghan army and police, and Washington has been pressing its allies for more troops and an end to restrictions on how and where their soldiers can fight. But so far, only Britain and Poland have committed more men and women and France is pulling its special forces out. The Taliban seized Musa Qala in the opium-growing province of Helmand on Thursday night (February 1), four months after British troops withdrew following a peace deal with tribal leaders to keep the insurgents out, a deal criticised by the United States. NATO forces launched an offensive to retake the town, killing the local Taliban chief in an air strike on Sunday.

ITN Source | February 5, 2007

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