LONDON/KABUL, Oct 23: Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar on Monday threatened that fighting in Afghanistan would be ‘intensified’ to ‘surprising’ levels to drive out ‘foreign infidels’ while a Taliban commander told media they were planning to attack civilians in Europe.

In a lengthy Eid message targeting Afghans, Mullah Omar also urged Nato to withdraw its troops and ‘stop sacrificing’ soldiers for the United States, claiming that the nation still stood with him.

“With the grace of Allah, the fighting will be increased ... and it will be organised in the next few months,” he said in a Pashto language message to media and also posted on the internet and signed ‘Leader of the Faithful in the Afghan Resistance’.

“I am confident the fighting will be a surprise for many,” said the Taliban leader with a $10 million bounty on his head.

Mullah Omar threatened President Hamid Karzai of dire consequences for cooperating with Washington.

“The Kabul puppet regime has failed to establish peace and stability as well as to control narcotics,” he said, adding members of the government were involved in the opium trade.

Talking to reporters after Eid prayers at the presidential palace, President Karzai did not comment on Mullah Omar’s message, but called on Afghans not to be swayed by the Taliban.

“My message to those who are being used by strangers and killing their people and their children, destroying their homes, my message is to free themselves from the grip of menace,” he said. “That menace has been destroying Afghanistan for years.

“I ask them to (return) to their country and free themselves from being used by others and work to build their country not to destroy it.”

A deadline by the kidnappers of an Italian photojournalist in the south for the handover by Italy of an Afghan convert to Christianity from Islam passed with no word from them.—Agencies