We're Not Open to Talks: Taliban Boss

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has once again denied that the insurgents are open to talks with the Afghan government. In a message for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Omar argues insurgents in Afghanistan are winning the war. "Claims about negotiation, flexibility in the stance of the Islamic Emirate are mere baseless propaganda,” he says in an emailed statement.

He asserts that "the enemy wants to cover up its failure in Afghanistan by wrongfully raising hollow hopes in the hearts of their respective people." The insurgents' strategy is to increase operations countrywide, then "compel the enemy to come out from their hide-outs and then crush them through tactical raids," he writes. (More Afghanistan stories.)