Taliban Say Do Not Want To Fight Inside Afghan Cities

The head of a Taliban commission, which oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents, has urged the residents of Afghanistan cities to reach out to them.

The Taliban do not want to battle government forces inside Afghanistan's cities, a senior insurgent leader said Tuesday, as the terrorists also warned Turkey against extending its troop presence. The insurgents have swept through much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the government now holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air. On Tuesday, the head of a Taliban commission that oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents urged the residents of cities to reach out to them. "Now that the fighting from mountains and deserts has reached the doors of the cities, Mujahiddin don't want fighting inside the city," Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a message tweeted by a Taliban spokesman, using another term for the group.