Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a call for peace
to Taliban militants, including their leader Mullah Omar, on Tuesday,
while three US-led coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside
attack in southern Afghanistan.
On the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that comes
at the end of the Muslim month of fasting, or Ramadan, Karzai called
on the Taliban to stop their insurgency and join the peace process
set out by his government.
Karzai, who often in the past insisted that negotiating with the
insurgents would not include Mullah Omar, said that the fugitive
leader could join his government and should not be afraid of around
70,000 international forces in the country.
'Come to your own homeland, and construct your country,' Karzai
said in a press conference in his presidential palace on Tuesday.
'Don't be afraid of foreigners: we will stand in front of them so
that they don't hurt you,' the president said.
'A few days ago I called upon their leader, Mullah Omar, and said
'My brother, my dear, come back to your country; come and work for
the peace and benefits of your people and stop killing your
brothers,'' he said.
Karzai also rejected media reports that secret negotiations were
under way with Taliban militants in Saudi Arabia, but said Afghan
officials have several times in the past travelled to both Saudi
Arabia and Pakistan in the hopes of ending the conflict.
'The truth is that for the past several years we have been working
on it. I have asked the king of Saudi Arabia to try to work for
bringing peace in our country.'
Meanwhile, Mullah Omar, who is one of the most wanted people on
the US government terrorist list, has called on NATO and US forces in
the country to withdraw from Afghanistan or face defeat.
'If you withdraw from our country, we will facilitate the ways for
your withdrawal,' Omar said in a statement to the US and NATO forces.
'But if you insist on continuing your occupation, then, like the
Russians, you will face defeat in all corners of the world.'
The Taliban did not comment on Karzai's call for negotiations, but
such offers by Afghan officials have been consistently rejected by
Taliban militants, who have waged a bloody insurgency following the
ouster of their regime in late 2001.
In other news, three coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside
bomb explosion on Monday in southern Afghanistan, the US military
said in a statement.
The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the killed
soldiers.
Most of the soldiers serving under the command of the coalition
forces are from the United States.
More than 200 international soldiers have been killed in Taliban
attacks so far this year in Afghanistan.
The conflict has also left more than 4,000 people - mostly Taliban
- dead.
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