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'Secret Army' Vows Vengeance

Leaflets found in Afghanistan call for attacks on U.S. troops

Tuesday, September 3, 2002
The Associated Press

The circular, which Arabic speakers said was written by someone with a good command of classical Arabic, described Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an American "slave" because of Washington's support for the urbane leader, who won an 18-month term during a meeting of Afghans held in Kabul in June. "There is no peace or stability in Afghanistan," said the leaflet, translated by The Associated Press. "Hamid Karzai is sitting in Kabul like a puppet."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- AP
A group that purports to be a new "Secret Army of Mujahedeen" is claiming responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops in Arabic-language leaflets that have surfaced in eastern Afghanistan in recent days.

The hitherto unknown group also vows to avenge the deaths of Afghans killed in what the United States refers to as "friendly fire" mishaps in the search for al-Qaida and Taliban.

Although similar pamphlets have appeared from time to time since the United States went to war in Afghanistan, this one is unusual because it is written in a language relatively few Afghans speak and even fewer can read.

That suggests the document could have been written for the several thousand Arabs, most of them suspected al-Qaida members, who may still be hiding in the remote mountains of the east.

The authors of the rambling six-page leaflet did not refer to themselves as an offshoot of either al-Qaida or Taliban but said their group had three goals: "To avenge the innocent martyrs of the brutal U.S. bombing of Afghanistan; to continue jihad until the last foreign soldier is expelled from Afghanistan; and to defend the (Muslim) faith and freedom to establish an Islamic order."

At the U.S. military headquarters in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, U.S. spokesman Col. Roger King said he was unaware of the group and refused to discuss threats, if any, that American forces have received.
(More: Cape Cod Times News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan