Taliban leader blasts cross-border idea

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Mullah Mohammad Omar, the supreme leader of the Taliban, criticized calls for cross-border tribal councils between Pakistan and Afghanistan as a trap.

Omar, purportedly communicating via e-mail through a Taliban spokesman, dismissed the suggestion, which would increase cross-border cooperation to end Taliban violence, the BBC reported Friday. The authentication of the communication could not be confirmed.

"No Muslim will participate in something ... created by the aggressors and puppets," he said.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri discussed the idea during a visit to Afghanistan this month.

Omar encouraged the Taliban to continue to fight and warned NATO troops that they would be driven from the region.

"The enemy will have to quit the region with humiliation and disgrace," he said.

"Afghans have a history of expelling their enemies as no enemy and invader has quit Afghanistan willingly."

Omar, who was a $10 million bounty on his head, has been in hiding since U.S. led forces ousted the Taliban in November 2001.