Taliban warn US against 'grave mistake' of attack

The News: Jang

KABUL: The Taliban authorities have said that any missile strike by the United States against Osama bin Laden would be a "grave mistake".

In an interview with the Guardian, Taliban Foreign Affairs spokesman Faiz Ahmed Faiz said Afghanistan had "no difficulty" with the US. "We don't like the logic of intimidation and force. This is not rationalism," he said.

The US has been actively considering targeting Osama bin Laden following the attack on the USS Cole in Aden on October 12 in which 17 US sailors had been killed. The Americans have spent the past two-and-a-half weeks searching for hard evidence linking bin Laden to the explosion and have placed their forces in the Gulf on a state of high alert.

Western diplomats believe any missile strike would take place just before the US presidential elections next Tuesday in order to gain maximum political mileage from the attack. Showing signs of growing anxiety, the Taliban authorities have asked a CNN crew to leave Kandahar, where bin Laden has one of several hideouts, accusing it of causing tension. Foreign aid workers in Kabul are nervously awaiting developments.