KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban's reclusive leader said in a Muslim holiday message Saturday that the U.S. and NATO should study Afghanistan's long history of war, in a pointed reminder that foreign forces have had limited military success in the country.
The message from Mullah Omar comes less than a month before the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
This year has been the deadliest of the conflict for U.S. and NATO troops. Taliban attacks have spiked around Afghanistan in the past three years, and the militants now control wideswaths of territory.
On Saturday, bombs targeting military vehicles in the south, where the Taliban are increasingly powerful, killed six people.
In his message for thecoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the fasting month of Ramadan, Omar said the U.S. and NATO should study the history of Alexander the Great, whose forces were defeated by Pashtun tribesmen in the fourth century.
"We would like to point out that we fought against the British invaders for 80 years from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately got independence by defeating" Britain, a statement attributed to Omar said.
"Today we have strong determination, military training and effective weapons. Still more, we have preparedness for a long war and the regional situation is in our favor.Therefore, we will continue to wage jihad until we gain independence and force the invaders to pull out," it said. The statement's authenticity could not be verified, but it was posted on a Web site the Taliban frequently use.
Omar is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan but hasn't been seen in years.
President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. focus on Afghanistan. Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to the country this year, and by year's end the U.S. will have a record 68,000 in the country.
Militant ambushes have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly, and U.S. troops say the Taliban are no longer the ragtag force the military first faced in late 2001.
In the southern city of Kandahar, a bomb hidden on a bicycle exploded as an Afghan army vehicle drove by, killing five people - four civilians and one Afghan soldier - and wounding 15 people, said Mohammad Pashtun, a regional police official.
The Danish military said Saturday that one of its soldiers was also killed after militants fired on troops on patrol in the southern province of Helmand. Denmark has lost 25 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the U.S .-ledcoalition in 2002. Separately, Hungarian officials said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle into a Hungarian convoy in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri. No troops were killed.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask Washington for thousands more troops in coming weeks, but political leaders are questioning the need for more forces.
Al-Qaida posted a new video this week threatening that if Germans do not pushtheir political parties to withdraw that country's soldiers from Afghanistan, "there will be a rude awakening after the elections." Germany holds national elections Sept. 27.
Omar's message said the international community has falsely depicted the Taliban as a force against education and women's rights. It did not elaborate. Taliban militants force women to wear the all-encompassing burqa and don't allow females outside the home without male escorts.
Front Section, Pages 9, 14 on 09/20/2009