KANDAHAR, March 17: A statement attributed to leader of the defunct Taliban Mullah Omar says that large numbers of Afghan youths are signing up as suicide bombers for “a wave of bloody attacks” in coming months against foreign and Afghan troops.

The statement was telephoned on Tuesday to the Associated Press reporters in Kandahar and Islamabad by Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif and was subsequently received by e-mail from an unidentified sender.

The two-page typed statement ended with a signature that resembled Mullah Omar’s, according to the former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef.

“Young Afghans are coming to Mujahideen camps in large numbers to enroll their names for suicide attacks,” the statement said.

“This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets, and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance.”

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai dismissed the Thursday’s statement as propaganda and said insurgents lacked the strength to launch a new offensive.

The statement predicted that 2006 will be “the year of success and victory for Muslims”.

“Those who have attacked the holy soil of Islam and their puppets will face shameful defeat because Muslims now understand that Western infidels want to eliminate our beliefs, soil and culture and make us their puppets,” the statement said.

The statement also criticized President Bush’s opposition to Hamas winning Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and blamed Washington for sectarian fighting in Iraq.

POLICE CHIEF KILLED: Gunmen killed a former police chief in a southern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold, while an explosion hit a peacekeepers’ convoy in the north, officials said on Friday.

Abdullah Khan was killed on Thursday afternoon while driving his car in Argandab, a town in the southern Zabul province about 160 kilometres northeast of Kandahar, said Zabul province Police Chief Ghulam Nabi Malakhail.

Two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle fired at Mr Khan’s car then fled the scene, said Mr Malakhail.

Mr Khan was replaced 18 months ago as a district police chief in Zabul, which borders Pakistan.

Police late Thursday also raided a home and detained three suspected Taliban members in Zabul’s capital of Qalat, about 60 kilometres south of Argandab, Mr Malakhail said.

They arrested three more suspects on Friday in Zabul’s Mizan district, he said— AP