US President George W. Bush is responsible for “the deaths of thousands of ordinary Afghans, including men, women and children,” according to the Afghan consul in Islamabad, who granted an exclusive interview to Vietnam’s Youth newspaper on Wednesday.
Mohammad Jahid also told the daily that he could not confirm a Tuesday report in the Iranian press that nearly 100 US special forces had been trapped and killed by the fundamentalist militia after landing in Afghanistan.
“So far, I don’t have any information from Kabul about that,” the reclusive regime’s spokesman in Pakistan told the Youth reporter.
The consul reiterated that Americans should not forget that Afghans were a people “who love independence and faith more than life itself.”
Asked about Afghanistan’s losses, Jahid said that the Bush administration “has come up with the reason [that they’re] striking terrorists, but in reality, their bombs are hitting villages and civilian neighborhoods, causing the deaths of thousands of ordinary Afghans, including men, women and children.”
“From my perspective, these are the widespread terrorist acts of the Bush administration,” added Jahid. “They’re using the worst kinds of weapons to kill the people of Afghanistan, who don’t have any way to defend themselves.”
The consul also said the regime was doing its best to cope with some 750 applications from journalists hoping to cross the border into Afghanistan.
“If you don’t have a visa, you can’t enter Afghanistan,” he said. “We’re looking into not granting entry visas to foreign television reporters, because the information they’ve been providing lately hasn’t been very objective.”
Media coverage of the war in Afghanistan has been sharply limited both by US government limitations, and controls by the Taliban regime.
Currently, the only satellite channel allowed to broadcast reports out of Afghanistan is the Qatar-based Al Jazeera. CNN, which once kept the world riveted during conflicts like the Gulf War, has had to resort to re-broadcasting Al Jazeera footage.
Asked whether the Taliban could face the US, Jahid said: “The recent brutal attacks only testify to the powerlessness of the FBI and CIA in terms of investigating key suspects.”
“They’ve thrown the blame on Afghanistan without any excuse, but they forget that we’re a people who love independence and faith more than life itself,” he said.
“Justice will always beat injustice,” Jahid added.
US warplanes have pounded Afghan targets since early October, and according to the Taliban, bombs have blasted villages full of civilians. In addition, the UN has confirmed that least one hospital near the city of Herat has been bombed.
Bombing raids by American warplanes killed thousands of Vietnamese in the 1960s and 1970s – Albawaba.com
