Taliban boss Mullah Omar has warned that the US will suffer defeat just like the Soviet Union if it fails to withdraw from Afghanistan, Reuters reports. In a message posted on extremist websites, the defiant leader offered American forces "safe passage" out of Afghanistan if officials reconsider their "wrong decision of wrong occupation."
"If you leave our lands, we can arrange for you a reasonable opportunity for your departure," the cleric wrote. The fugitive predicted America would be defeated "all over the world." Soviet troops exited Afghanistan in 1988 after a decade of guerrilla warfare bested its military.
(More Taliban stories.)