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Bush Gives Taliban Last Chance, Muslims Protest
Friday, October 12, 2001
(4:16 AM ET)
By Sayed Salahuddin & Alan Elsner / Reuters

"So far 160 bodies have been recovered and most of them were children and women," AIP quoted a Taliban spokesman in the eastern city of Jalalabad as saying.

KABUL / WASHINGTON -- Reuters
President Bush offered Afghanistan's ruling Taliban a last chance to surrender Osama bin Laden as the world's Muslims held their first Friday prayers since he launched air raids on Taliban strongholds.

As Bush spoke, U.S. warplanes pounded targets in Afghanistan for a fifth successive night.

With opponents of the U.S.-led air and missile strikes staging protests in different parts of the Islamic world, Bush and the FBI told Americans to be on their guard against reprisals at home and abroad over the next few days.

Bush, speaking one month after suicide squads killed more than 5,000 Americans and other nationals by slamming hijacked airliners into landmarks in the United States, said the Taliban could still stop the military offensive.

"You still have a second chance. Just bring him in and bring his leaders and lieutenants and other thugs and criminals with him," he told a White House news conference on Thursday, referring to bin Laden.

"If you cough him up and his people today we'll reconsider what we're doing to your country."
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Dan