Full text of bin Laden statement Osama bin Laden has urged Pakistanis to fight any assault on Afghanistan by the United States, Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television has reported.
"We incite our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to deter with all their capabilities the American crusaders from invading Pakistan and Afghanistan," the television reported him as saying in a statement.
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"The new Jewish crusader campaign is led by the biggest crusader Bush under the banner of the cross," the statement said.The statement faxed to Jazeera was typed in Arabic, signed Osama bin Laden in typed letters and signed in handwriting by Osama Mohammad.Earlier, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban appealed to the United Nations, Islamic countries and the people of the United States to pressurise President Bush's administration to pull back from a threatened military attack.But preparations for war continued with the enlisting of 300,000 extra fighters.In a flurry of statements emanating from Afghanistan, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said the killing of Osama bin Laden would not bring an end to terrorism. He said the US should withdraw its forces from the Gulf and end its partisanship in Palestine.
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"If America does not take the above-mentioned steps, it will be involved in a vain and bloody war . . . and it will burn itself and others," the statement said.The threat was backed up by a claim by Mullah Omar's defence minister that 300,000 extra fighters had enlisted to defend their country."In the present situation the Ministry of Defence has registered an extra 300,000 people who are experienced in jihad [holy war]," Mullah Obaidullah said in a statement in Kabul.But the Taliban has moved to avert conflict by appealing to UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan to intervene in the crisis.In a letter to Mr Annan, Foreign Minister Mr Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel wrote: "Your excellency is requested to use your authority and influence and not let big countries impose their evil interests on small and poor countries, especially on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".He repeated the Taliban's position that Osama bin Laden could not have been involved in the attacks on the US because he did not have the means to communicate with the outside world.Mr Mutawakel also attacked the world for not condemning a US spy plane's incursion into Afghanistan airspace.The Taliban had warned neighbouring Uzbekistan against co-operating with any military strikes after the US spy aircraft was reportedly shot down near the border."Recently a US spy plane was shot down by the forces of the Islamic Emirate. Is the sending of such aircraft to the territory of an independent country not a terrorist attack?" Mr Mutawakel asked.In an earlier statement, Afghanistan's foreign minister appealed to the United States people to put pressure on their government for restraint, saying his country appreciated the aid it received from the US during its resistance to the 1979-89 Soviet occupation.
AFP