Omar, bin Laden will resurface soon - letter

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar has claimed in a letter that he, as well as the Al Qaida chief, Osama bin Laden, were alive and would appear in public at an appropriate time in the near future.

The letter, written in Kandahari Pushto and made available to journalists in the southern Pakistan city of Quetta yesterday, is the first since Omar disappeared from public view when the Taliban were defeated by coalition forces in December. It was made available by Omar's personal secretary and spokesman, Tayyab Agha.

The letter said that the Taliban movement had been activated once again and the mujahideen, a reference to Taliban and Al Qaida fighters, would make their presence felt in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan very soon.

Omar's letter also states the Taliban and Al Qaida had nothing to do with the car bomb blast in Karachi and criticised the BBC's coverage of events in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said yesterday that some 20 U.S. commandos are missing, and the search by U.S. and coalition forces in Paktia, Paktika and Khost "is actually about them".

The sources said one of the captured U.S. commandos had been killed after the entire convoy was trapped by Taliban and Al Qaida fighters in Nakai and Shahi Kot areas of Paktika province before the launch of Operation Ana-conda. No confirmation of the claim is available, a senior officer of Pakistan's secret services said.

"Our leaders believe that the capture of the American commandos can help in the release of arrested Taliban and Al Qaida members from Cuba," a Taliban source on condition of anonymity said. "We have been waiting to start negotiations about swapping prisoners."

Taliban and intelligence sources said Taliban and Al Qaida fighters overpowered the Afghan soldiers helping the U.S. forces in Shahi Kot and used their military uniform to lure them towards advance posts in the area posing as pro-U.S. soldiers.

The commandos, they say were trapped in the mountainous terrain and one of them was reportedly killed after he resisted capture.

The operations started by the U.S., British and Pakistani troops on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border was due to U.S. suspicions that the captured Americans have either been kept in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan or were shifted to the tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border, sources said.