Taliban claim US hacked phones

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban in Afghanistan insisted Wednesday that their leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was alive, saying a text message and Internet posting announcing his death were fake.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that the early morning announcement about Mullah Omar was the result of a hack.

"He is overseeing operations in the country," Mujahid told The Associated Press. "Outsiders must have hacked into Taliban phones and the website." Mujahid blamed U.S. intelligence agencies, saying they were trying "to demoralize the Taliban."

Mullah Omar has led the decade-long insurgency against the U.S.-led military coalition and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. He ruled most of Afghanistan as leader of its Taliban government before the United States and its allies invaded on Oct. 7, 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Violence has spiked recently as Afghan security forces start to take charge of security in seven areas - a process that is to continue until they are in the lead across the nation by 2014, when foreign combat troops will be gone or in supportive roles.

Coalition forces were to transfer responsibility Wednesday for Panjshir province, north of Kabul; and the provincial capitals of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in the south, Herat in Herat province in the west and Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province in the north.

Insurgents have been targeting the transition areas to convince the Afghan people that they cannot trust Afghan security forces to protect them.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in Mazar-i-Sharif, killing four civilians, including a child, said Sher Jan Durani, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. More than 10 others were injured in the bombing, which occurred in the south end of the provincial capital of Balkh province.

False reports of Omar's death also circulated in May, but were denied by insurgent leaders.

The one-eyed, reclusive spiritual and political head of the insurgent movement is among the most wanted men in the world, with a $US10 million bounty on his head.

The Taliban are now threatening to take revenge against mobile phone companies in Afghanistan, who may have been involved in the alleged hacking.

A second Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf, says the group will investigate the hacking and will consider changing the way they put out news, using websites more than short text messages.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan declined to comment about the hacking.