ISLAMABAD, April 27: A Taliban leader vowed on Thursday to wage an unrelenting holy war against US and British troops in Afghanistan from his stronghold in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Speaking by telephone from South Waziristan, where his forces have gathered strength in recent months, Haji Omar denied harbouring Al Qaeda members, but said he was organising attacks inside Afghanistan.

“There is no Al Qaeda here. There is only local Taliban, the Taliban of Waziristan,” Omar told Reuters.

“We do send mujahideen (holy warriors) to Afghanistan. We send mujahideen to areas where American and British troops are concentrated... we will continue our jihad against them. It is our religious obligation”.

Omar, along with a handful of other militant leaders in South Waziristan, signed a peace agreement with the army in 2004 and is not on any wanted list.

A senior security official in North West Frontier Province said that Omar was known to be recruiting fighters and sending them across the border.

Omar’s threat comes as the United States prepares to reduce its troop strength in Afghanistan to 16,500 from over 19,000.

A veteran of the jihad, or holy war, against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, 45-year-old Omar also fought against American forces after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Omar says he met both Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the Afghanistan’s Taliban movement before the Sept 11 attacks, but hasn’t seen them since.

He said the mujahideen had recovered from the disarray they fell into after the Taliban’s eviction.

Omar said his loyalists had established peace and order in the lawless region by winning the support of local people.

“We have eliminated high-handedness, robberies and drug use in the area. We have not handed out punishments to people for playing music but have persuaded them through advice.”

The government’s top administrator for South Waziristan, Political Agent Munir Azam, said the situation in the tribal region was not as bad as it has been portrayed.

“Militants are there and we are trying to resolve the issue through a political process,” Mr Azam told newsmen from Peshawar.

“We are in the process of making a team including clerics and tribal elders to settle the issue peacefully.”—Reuters