The spiritual head of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has vowed to bring Afghan President Hamid Karzai before an Islamic tribunal, according to an online Ramazan message posted on Sunday. The message to the Islamic nation, of which the authenticity could not be verified, was to mark the feast of Eid-ul-Fitr at the end of Ramazan.
"It is the fifth consecutive year that Afghanistan, our dear country, is under Crusader colonisation," Mullah Omar said. "But this time we also congratulate you on the defeat and the flight of the crusader. "I also announce to you that the crusaders' valet (Karzai) and his colleagues are in the process of looking for a way to escape ... We are going to bring them before an Islamic tribunal," the Taliban leader wrote in approximate Arabic. "The crusaders are leading people into error ... They are using all media means to promote their lies, spending 100 million dollars.
"It is what the Russians did ... but I am assured that they will be defeated, just as the Russians and their allies were," the message concluded. The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. But its troops were ultimately forced to withdraw after a struggle with Islamic militants that took the lives of least 10,000 Soviet soldiers according to official figures.