US, Taliban ready to go to war

kabul/washington/islamabad: as the us stood poised to attack afghanistan on monday, taliban militia deployed about 3,00,000 afghans "experienced in jehad" in the capital, along the borders and other important sites. the islamic militia's defence minister mullah obaidullah said in kabul: "we have instructed the people to prepare themselves for a jehad and wage a holy war at any time they think is necessary." a television channel in qatar said it had received a fax message by bin laden asking "muslim brothers in pakistan to repel the us crusader forces." we incite our muslim brethren in pakistan and afghanistan to prevent american crusader forces from invading pakistan and afghanistan with all means at their disposal. in another development, the taliban threatened to execute any un workers who used satellite telephones, walkie-talkies and computers in their offices in afghanistan. the militia took over un offices in the southern city of kandahar over the weekend and "closed down vital relief work and mine-clearing operations". un spokeswoman stephanie bunker said taliban militia "entered un offices in kabul and locked and sealed all communications equipment". "similar action was taken at three other locations around the country," she said. as a result, most un humanitarian operations in the country either had been disrupted or closed down. she said the move had obvious "profound consequences for over 100,000 people who are believed to have fled kandahar for safety of the countryside or the pakistani border over the past two weeks." us forces have been massing in the region for days to back up washington's ultimatum to the taliban to hand over bin laden. a us team of defence officials has also arrived in in islamabad to firm up pakistan's cooperation with the military action against afghanistan. the new york times quoted officials as saying that the us had stepped up contacts with anti-taliban northern alliance and various other factions and splinter groups. it was considering providing them with financial assistance, the officials said. with the threat of war looming large, pakistan on monday recalled all its diplomatic and other staff from its missions in kabul and other cities in afghanistan. a foreign office spokesman said: "we have withdrawn them (staff) for security reasons." apart from kabul, where it has an embassy, pakistan has consulates in kandahar and jalalabad. the spokesman, however, parried questions on whether the taliban embassy in pakistan would also be closed. russian news agency itar-tass, quoting intelligence sources, said bin laden had set up several secret command centres in jalalabad and was was likely to take over the command of taliban if the us attacked afghanistan. he was shuttling between his numerous secret hideouts in jalalabad in afghanistan, close to the border with pakistan. meanwhile, the taliban continued to maintain that it had still not found bin laden to deliver a request that he leave the country. "i do not know exactly where he is," taliban's ambassador to pakistan abdul salam zaeef said in islamabad. "there is an effort to locate him. he may be in afghanistan and he may be hiding." taliban's claim that it does not know the whereabouts of bin laden has been dismissed by the us, saying it is "not going to be deterred by such reports taliban's supreme leader mullah mohammad omar warned that terrorism would continue as long as the us troops remained in the gulf region, home to islam's holiest places, and as long as washington sided with israel against the palestinians." "the us should not harbour any misunderstanding. it cannot come out of the current crisis if it kills me or osama (bin laden)," omar said. "if america wants to end terrorism, it should withdraw its forces from the gulf and end its partiality on the palestine issue."