Afghan Taliban accuse Washington of propaganda war

KABUL, Dec 16 (AFP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Thursday said they were victims of a US propaganda war and insisted they were against terrorism.

The Islamic militia, who control most of the country, protested the US State Department's warning that it would hold the Taliban responsible for any terrorist attacks by Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, a billionaire Saudi dissident, is wanted in the United States for the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa last year in which 224 people were killed.

"The US government has long been accusing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan for various reasons and has launched a serious propaganda war against our war-torn country," a Taliban foreign ministry statement said.

"The IEA Foreign Ministry spokesman vehemently dismisses the untrue and baseless allegations of the US Foreign Ministry and declares that we are against staging any terrorist activities the world over," it said.

The Taliban have refused to hand over bin Laden, pushing the United Nations to impose aviation and financial sanctions on the Taliban in November.

"If the United States accuses the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of expressing a correct Islamic belief and forming a central Islamic government which will certainly be a strong bastion against any aggressor, we ask the world and the US itself to judge us," it said.

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel said Washington's position was "unreasonable" and said the United States had not proved their allegations against Bin Laden.

"We have received the American message which is nothing but a ruse to cover up its hostile acts against Afghanistan," the Afghan Islamic Press quoted Mutawakel as saying.

"They are after Osama while they have no proof with them against him," he told the Pakistan-based news agency from the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan.

Mutawakel also expressed displeasure over an official statement in Amman on the arrest of 13 Arabs, mostly Jordanians, who Jordan said had received training in Afghanistan and were plotting terrorist attacks.

The arrested Arabs may have got training during the anti-Soviet resistance war in Afghanistan, the Taliban foreign minister said.