Taliban to U.S.: Forget About Sept. 11

SPINBOLDAK, Afghanistan – "Forget about it."

That's what the Taliban had to say to the U.S. on Tuesday about the attacks on America that killed thousands on Sept. 11.

A Taliban spokesman said the U.S. has evened the score — that the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and Muslim suffering elsewhere have counterbalanced the terror attacks which killed over 4,000 people.

"You should forget the 11 September attacks, because now there is new fighting against Muslims and Islam," said the spokesman, Syed Tayyad Agha.

"The international and global terrorists like America and Britain ... are killing daily our innocent people."

Agha, a spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, said Sept. 11 was "America's problem" because it was carried out by people in the United States and that the Taliban were not responsible.

"This is the problem of Bush and Tony Blair," Agha said. "This is not our problem."

At a news conference in the Afghan border town of Spinboldak, Agha also claimed — as the Taliban have claimed before — to know nothing about Usama bin Laden's whereabouts.

"We have no idea where he is,'' he said. "There is no relation right now. There is no communication."

He said he knew of no members of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network in areas under Taliban control and that contact with them had been lost "due to their communication problems."

He said the Taliban had vowed to stand their ground and fight to the end despite Gen. Tommy Franks' declaration that the U.S. "will prevail" in Afghanistan and "complete the destruction of the Al Qaeda terrorist network."

Agha said the Taliban would defend territory they still control — including their home base, Kandahar — after a week of sweeping retreats across Afghanistan.

"They have decided to defend the presently controlled areas," he said. "We will try our best and we will defend our nation ... and we will not give any chance to anybody to disturb our Islamic rule in Kandahar and other provinces."

Franks, commander of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, said the siege of the northern city of Kunduz — the last Taliban redoubt in the north — would end in defeat for the Taliban. 

"I don't know how long that battle will continue, but at the end of the day, we will prevail in the city of Kunduz," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.