Word: mullah
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...Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai shocked Afghan and international observers when he reached out to the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, offering him a guarantee of safety if he agrees to peace talks. Omar, who has a $10 million price on his head for his support of al-Qaeda, has not been seen since 2001, when his Taliban regime was toppled by U.S. forces. Omar is thought to be hiding in the ungoverned tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border, though he still appears to be engaged in key leadership decisions regarding the growing militancy in the country. Addressing journalists...
...interest in peace talks unless all foreign forces leave the country. Karzai, for his part, asserted in the same speech that any militant seeking reconciliation must be willing to respect the Afghan constitution, the very document that Omar rejects as heresy. "It is ridiculous to think that Mullah Omar would be willing to come to the negotiating table now," scoffs a NATO commander. "This is the man who draped himself in the cloak of the Prophet and declared himself commander of the faithful. He has nothing to gain by negotiating, and we have nothing to gain by offering talks when...
...Mullah Brother, deputy leader of the Taliban, rejected Karzai's offer, telling Reuters via satellite telephone, "We are safe in Afghanistan and we have no need for Hamid Karzai's offer of safety.? He added that foreign forces had to leave before the start of any negotiations. "As long as foreign occupiers remain in Afghanistan, we aren't ready for talks because they hold the power and talks won't bear fruit ... The problems in Afghanistan are because of them." To further underscore the Taliban's rejection of Karzai?s offer, a suicide bomber killed four people today...
...truck drivers, Jan Mohammad, 45, was ready to quit, even though his family desperately needed his $100 monthly salary. "I am so fed up," he said. "[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar says if you transport goods for the Americans, I will kill you. But the government security agencies take off their uniforms at sunset and rob me. There is no salvation...
...inconceivable task. "The West tends to imagine a rather more coherent organization than the Taliban really is," says Joanna Nathan, Afghanistan analyst for the International Crisis Group. "They imagine there is a single element of control over a wider organization. This view that it is somehow going to be Mullah Omar sitting at one end of the table while President Karzai sits at the other as they sign a power-sharing agreement and we can all go home - that is a fantasy...