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Posted on 11/05/2001 7:29:21 AM PST by wimpycat

Taliban invites Bush, Blair for a duel Mon Nov 05 11:09:18 2001

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI)-- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia on Monday proposed a duel among President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and its leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"The Americans have launched propaganda that Mullah Omar has gone in hiding, so I will propose that Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush should take Kalashnikovs and come to a specified place where Mullah Omar will appear with the Kalashnikovs to determine as to who will run," Taliban Foreign Minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil was quoted as saying by Iran's IRNA news agency.

"Mullah Omar changes places because of security," he said at the Taliban Foreign Ministry's Guest House in Kandahar.. "He effectively runs affairs of the government as in the past."

Mutawakil also reiterated the Taliban's claim that U.S. soldiers and "spies" had been arrested in Afghanistan, but he refused to provide details of the incidents.

Ruling out the possibility of any negotiated solution to the hostilities in Afghanistan, Mutawakil said the United States had closed doors for talks.

"After the American refusal to hold talks, now to whom we should talk to?" he asked.

He said the Taliban would welcome all volunteers, but said they were not needed until a ground battle began.

Since Oct. 7, U.S. planes have bombed Afghanistan in retaliation for the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, the man Washington says masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed some 5,000 people.

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