Taliban downplay Obama's decision on troops drawdown, call for complete withdrawal

KABUL, June 23 (Xinhua)-- Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan on Thursday downplayed U.S. President Barack Obama's troops withdraw announcement as a trick to deceive public opinion and called for the complete pull out of foreign forces, a Taliban statement said.

"Obama and his war mongers want to deceive their nation and with this announcement, while in reality, they have no respect for their nation's demands of waiting to bring this war and occupation to an end nor do they want to fulfill their promise," the statement sent to media added.

In the statement written in Pashtu language, spoken largely among the Taliban fighters, and English, the Taliban outfit vowed to continue armed struggle till the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama announced in Washington Wednesday night that 10,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 will come back home by September 2012.

"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of Taliban ousted regime) once again wants to make it clear that the solution for the Afghan crisis lies in the full withdrawal of all foreign troops immediately and until this does not happen, our armed struggle will increase from day to day," the statement emphasized.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/23/c_13946127.htm.