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Mullah Omar Orders Taliban to Fight to the Last
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
(12:46 PM ET)
By Claudia Parsons / Reuters

U.S. Marines of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) in full battle gear carry their weapons, including small rockets, as they leave the Marine forward base in southern Afghanistan late November 27, 2001 to take up positions in the desert. The Marines assaulted and took command of this base Nov. 25.
Photo Credit: Reuters.

"The era of the Taliban is coming to an end," said Kenton Keith, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. That end could be longer and bloodier than some hope.

DESERT AIRSTRIP, Afghanistan -- Reuters
Mullah Mohammad Omar, defiant after a U.S. raid failed to hit him, ordered his beleaguered Taliban to stand firm Wednesday.

Pinned down by American bombing, in the sights of U.S. marines and under assault from Afghan tribal foes, the fundamentalist Taliban are trapped in their southern stronghold of Kandahar but their supreme leader forbade surrender.

"Don't vacate any areas," one source at the Pakistani border quoted Omar, who faces U.S. wrath for hosting Osama bin Laden, as saying in a radio message telling his forces to fight on.
"This is not a question of tribes. This is a question of Islam."

The world's only superpower confirmed its first battle casualty in the unequal conflict with the routed Taliban, saying a CIA officer died helping quell a three-day prison revolt by hundreds of bin Laden followers, which ended with their deaths.
(More: iWon.com News Source)
2001 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan