Afghan Taliban leader says peace talks are "rumors"

Taliban leader Mullah Omar said in a statement Monday that reports of peace talks between militants and the Afghan government were "misleading rumors" and dismissed the coalition surge as ineffective.

In a long and rambling statement on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-adha, the one-eyed Mullah Mohammad Omar said the Taliban's enemies had "been defeated on the battlefield" and had resorted to spreading "misleading rumors" about talks.

"The moments of defeat of the invaders have approached now due to the special victory and the sincere sacrifices of the Mujahedeen," said the one-eyed fugitive, according to the English-language statement.

"The enemy has been defeated on the battlefield. Now they rely on media hypes and portray themselves as if making advancement but the ground realities are what you and we are witnessing.

"Their life casualties are spiraling up. It is because of this pressure that the enemy has resorted to spreading the misleading rumors of peace talks."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has included eventual talks with the Taliban as part of a wider reintegration plan, but Afghan and U.S. officials have played down confused and unconfirmed reports about talks with high-level insurgents, saying any contacts so far have only been preliminary.

The Taliban have long said talk of peace negotiations was merely propaganda, saying they will never talk as long as there are foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Omar, who is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan and rarely issues public statements, said the Taliban maintained that its aim was solely to drive out foreign forces from Afghanistan.

"Claims of negotiation, flexibility in the stance of the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan -- the Taliban) are mere baseless propaganda" and a "hollow" smokescreen to mask the U.S. and NATO-led coalition's failures, he added.

The enemy has been defeated on the battlefield. Now they rely on media hypes and portray themselves as if making advancement but the ground realities are what you and we are witnessing

Mullah Omar

Different strategies

NATO leaders gather in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Friday for a two-day meeting which is likely to be dominated by the conflict in Afghanistan and a timetable for the withdrawal of the more than 150,000 foreign troops.

The 28-member bloc backs President Karzai's plan for the first drawdown of international soldiers to begin from July 2011 and a complete transfer of powers over security to local forces by the end of 2014.

Omar outlined the Taliban's own strategy in response.

"The aim is to entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union," he wrote.

"This will force it (to) face disintegration after dealing a crushing and decisive blow at it that it would not be able to hold itself thereafter."

The Taliban's short and long-term plan was "to increase our operations step by step and spread them to all parts of the country to compel the enemy to come out from their hideouts and then crush them through tactical raids", he added.

Omar said the strategy had proved successful in Marjah and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of extra U.S. troops were sent earlier this year to crush the stiff Taliban resistance, with mixed results.

"The troops surge made no change in the status quo and never will they be able to turn the tide... The more the war prolongs, the more casualties of your troops increase and the more its economic burden become heavier." he added.

The aim is to entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union

Mullah Omar