KABUL, Oct 8: An emergency session of the Taliban cabinet on Monday resolved to fight back against US-led forces and ruled out any change in the militia’s policy of protecting Osama bin Laden.

“We have decided to fight hard the attacks by the Americans and Britain,” the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying.

“We have discussed our military and political strategy and have taken several decisions on the military front. We have reinforced our military positions and have decided to deploy soldiers at some important places.

“We have also worked out a strategy for fighting. We will fight the Americans the way we fought the Russians,” the spokesman said.

The cabinet’s deputy chairman, Mullah Mohammad Hassan, said the Taliban would maintain their resolve in the face of Western hostility.

“Afghans are used to hard tasks. They will never lose their jihad morale,” the Taliban’s official Bakhtar Information Agency quoted Hassan as saying.

Hassan said Osama was not the only target of the US strikes.

“The US cannot tolerate a pure Islamic government. It wants to eradicate Islamic conviction,” Hassan said.

The spokesman said negotiations were the only way the militia could be convinced to hand over Osama.

“There is no change in our policy regarding Osama bin Laden and we have always believed in negotiations,” he said.

About Sunday’s air strikes, Hassan said: “They bombed the houses of our innocent people and martyred them.”—AFP