Taliban vow to capture Islamabad

TALIBAN have said they will take their war to Islamabad after moving into Swat Valleys Buner District where scores of militants had been clashing with villagers and police. A Taliban commander said the countrys military and the US were colluding in drone attacks and the militants would take their war to the capital in response, reported a private TV channel, quoting a foreign news agency. About 20 vehicles carrying Taliban entered Buner on Monday and started moving around the bazaar and streets, said senior police officer Israr Bacha. Villagers formed a militia, known as a lashkar, to confront the Taliban and eight of the insurgents were killed in a clash on Tuesday, police said. Two villagers and three policemen were also killed. Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Swat, was defiant: What law stops us going there? Our people will go there and stay there as long as they want. Taliban commander Mullah Nazeer Ahmed said militant factions have united and will take their war to the capital: The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the Mujahideen. Nazeer also blamed Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for sowing divisions between factions, saying the ISI is the Talibans main enemy. Nazeer said in an interview with Al-Qaedas media arm, Al-Sahab, that Pakistan was behind US drone attacks on militants. Authorities were misleading the public by saying it was the United States carrying out the strikes, he said and added it was the Pakistani army that sent spies to facilitate them. All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan, he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Al-Sahabs website.

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