RIYADH, Oct 14: Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar pledged in an interview printed on Sunday that his militia would teach the United States “a much more bitter lesson” than that taught to the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

“It’s true that we have not started our real battle against the United States because of their technological superiority,” he said in an interview with a Saudi daily, Al-Watan.

“But — God willing — we will not greet them with roses,” Omar said.

“They will be taught a much more bitter lesson than that taught to the Russians,” Omar said in the telephone interview from Afghanistan, the Arabic-language daily said.

He reiterated the Taliban’s total refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden.

“We have said if Washington has the evidence proving his (Osama’s) involvement and is confident of that, why don’t they give us this evidence and we are ready to try him in Afghanistan or by a committee of Islamic scholars from three countries.

“By ignoring this proposal, the United States is humiliating Shariat and accordingly the current war is not targeting (Osama) bin Laden but the destruction of the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan,” Omar asserted.

“I reiterate our readiness for the trial to take place in the presence of observers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and western countries,” he said.

Omar denied reports that members of his family have been killed in US air strikes, but admitted his house was hit.

He said there had been huge loss of life and extensive damage.

“Afghan cities and villages have suffered huge losses. A large number of women and children have been killed, and mosques, hospitals and residential areas have been hit,” said Omar, describing the air raids as barbaric.

But he asserted that the Afghan determination to fight had not been undermined.

The Afghan people will reject any Western-backed government in Kabul, said Omar, vowing that death would be the fate of all collaborators.—AFP