BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Omar: 'Victory or death'

Death awaits Afghanistan's invaders, says Mullah Omar

"The (Afghan) tribes along with the Taleban are ready for war ... and they agreed to that," the London-based Saudi political weekly magazine, Al-Majalla quoted him as saying.

"The outcome of what we are in is either victory or death," the Taleban leader was quoted as saying. "Both are the making of God."

He said that death, rather than victory, awaited Afghanistan's invaders.

"As for those who strike against us now, they have to know that the struggling nature of the Afghans and the geography of Afghanistan makes our country a grave for the invaders," he said.

Under attack

Mullah Omar played down the threat posed by the Northern Alliance, which is fighting to overthrow his regime.

The magazine quoted him as saying that Afghan opposition forces will face "the same fate as those who allied" themselves with the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan.

Mullah Omar is believed to have fled his compound near Kandahar on Sunday.

It was attacked by US fighter planes on Sunday night and Wednesday morning.

Residents fleeing Kandahar told Reuters news agency that Mullah Omar's 10-year-old son and stepfather were killed in a direct hit on one of his houses on Wednesday.

The Taleban are accused of harbouring Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

Bin Laden is suspected of masterminding the 11 September suicide strikes in New York and Washington.

Mullah Omar has called on all Muslims to back the Taleban's fight against the United States.