Taliban leader calls for jihad

Kandahar, Afghanistan

A call to holy war printed on posters across Afghanistan this week was attributed to the Taliban’s elusive leader, Mullah Omar. The one-eyed cleric purportedly told Afghans to support the people of Iraq by fighting the American forces in Afghanistan. “Whenever the non-Muslims attack a Muslim land,” the statement attributed to him said, “it is the duty of everyone to rise up against the aggressor.” Two American soldiers were killed in an ambush in southern Afghanistan this week, the first U.S. casualties in that country since December.

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