Tue May 15, 3:37 AM
By Noor Khan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban leader Mullah Omar has vowed to carry on the fight against coalition forces despite the death of the group's top field commander, a spokesman said Monday, insisting the insurgents would press ahead with "his same type of jihad."
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press that Omar and other rebel leaders passed on condolences to the family of Mullah Dadullah.
Ahmadi's remarks were the first Taliban confirmation of Dadullah's death.
Ahmadi read a statement attributed to Omar insisting that the Taliban will continue its attacks against "occupying countries."
Dadullah's death "won't create problems for the Taliban's jihad," he said.
Dadullah, who lost a leg battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan decades ago, died of gunshot wounds after a U.S.-led operation over the weekend in southern Helmand province.
Those who saw his body said he appeared to have three bullet wounds, two in the torso and one in the back of the head.
On Monday, ABC News aired a video interview in which Dadullah, 36 hours before his death, said attacks would be coming against the United States and Britain.
"We will be executing attacks in Britain and the U.S. to demonstrate our sincerity to destroy their cities as they have destroyed our cities," Dadullah said in the interview, given to ABC by the New York City-based NEFA Foundation, which researches and analyzes terrorist activities.
It wasn't immediately clear how NEFA obtained the video.
Ahmadi said Omar and his council of top Taliban leaders decided against naming an immediate replacement for Dadullah.
"Mullah Dadullah was the commander of all the fighting groups," Ahmadi quoted Omar as saying.
"Now all of the mujahedeen will carry on his same type of jihad. They will carry out attacks just as Mullah Dadullah did in his life."
Maj. Steve Graham, commander of the Reconnaissance Squadron with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, on Sunday described Dadullah's death as a step forward in the war.
"(But) will we wake up tomorrow and everything will be different? I don't know," he told The Canadian Press.
Dadullah was the second top-tier Taliban field commander to die in six months. A U.S. air strike killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in southern Afghanistan in December.
Ahmadi spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location and it was not possible to verify that he has access to Omar, whose whereabouts remain a mystery.
Afghan officials claim that Omar is living in Quetta, Pakistan, but Pakistani officials claim Omar is still somewhere across the border Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The reclusive leader - few photographs are known to exist of him - escaped the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He hasn't been seen publicly since.
Ahmadi said that Omar had requested that the Afghan government return Dadullah's body to his relatives for burial, and that "if they don't the consequences will be very bad."
But Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said officials buried Dadullah in Kandahar city on Monday. He said the burial was attended by friends but no family. He said he didn't fear Omar's threatened consequences.
"After this killing the Taliban has been weakened," Khalid said. "And they're going to become weaker and weaker every day."
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