Taliban urges Obama to end Bush's foreign policies

[David]

AP


NEW YORK – Taliban insurgents battling the U.S.-backed Afghan government urged President-elect Barack Obama to change course in U.S. foreign policy and withdraw American troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq, an Internet monitoring service said Tuesday.

The message posted on a Web site used by the Taliban claimed Obama's victory "reveals the collective willingness of American people not to continue the current despicable and anti-human wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," SITE Intelligence Group said.

The authors claimed that Obama had promised to end Bush's policies pledging to "recover the dwindling American economy and find a niche in the comity of nations."

But while Obama has said he intends to draw down U.S. troops levels in Iraq, he has repeatedly called for an increase in troops in Afghanistan to combat a resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The president-elect has also backed U.S. military strikes in the lawless and rugged border region of Pakistan, which the U.S. says has become a safe haven for extremists carrying out attacks in Afghanistan.

In Washington, the Obama transition team declined to comment.

The Taliban message, the authenticity of which couldn't immediately be determined, said if the Democrats continued in the steps of Bush, "then it is clear that the fate of the Democrats will be even more shameful and despicable than the Republicans."

Three days after the election, two Iraqi insurgent groups posted separate Internet messages reported by SITE calling on Obama to withdraw troops from Iraq. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, self-styled head of the al-Qaida front group Islamic State of Iraq, said "You do not interfere in the affairs of our countries. We, in turn, will not prevent commerce with you, whether it is in oil or otherwise."