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Afghan president: Taliban 'no match for our power'

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai told CNN Sunday the Taliban is incapable of making a comeback.

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(CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that the Taliban, the militant group ousted from power more than four years ago, is incapable of making a comeback.

Karzai, in an exclusive interview on CNN's "Late Edition," denounced former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar after a Pakistani TV station aired an audiotape it said was from Omar.

While Karzai acknowledged Taliban attacks against schools, children, clergy and workers, he said, "They are no match for our power." (Watch Karzai challenge Omar -- 1:26)

"The problem of Taliban as a movement that can cause danger to the Afghan government, that can cause danger to the coalition's affairs for the long-term stability of Afghanistan does not exist," he said.

Karzai was asked about the airing of an audiotape by Geo TV in Pakistan, purportedly of Omar speaking to other Taliban leaders in Afghanistan. The identity of the man speaking has not been authenticated.

The speaker says that losing Kabul in 2001, when the Taliban was ousted from power, doesn't mean the Taliban has been defeated. He claims that Taliban militants still hold much of the region in the Afghan mountains. The speaker also says Afghan forces would have no clout without the American army.

Karzai didn't say whether he believed the voice was Omar's, but he castigated the man, saying the Taliban figure is a coward who sends young fighters to their deaths while he is in hiding.

"I would tell Mullah Muhammed Omar that if he is really in charge and if he is doing all of this, then he should show himself up and face the danger that he is causing to hundreds of young people in Afghanistan and in Pakistan and not hide the way he is hiding," Karzai said.

He said Omar has "no opinions on any issue" and that "it's somebody else speaking for him."

Karzai was asked about a comment from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that "we are certain that Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan and has reorganized the Taliban. While in the past al Qaeda was in the lead, now the Taliban are in the lead."

The Afghan president disputed this statement, saying it was "definitely wrong."

"Terrorism is attacking us. Al Qaeda or the Taliban, whoever they are. They are at times together, at times separate. It's terrorism attacking Afghanistan. Period. And it's the same terrorism also that is attacking innocent people in Pakistan."

He said he and Musharraf should work together to fight terror.

Asked about the progress in capturing Omar and the top al Qaeda leaders, Karzai said that "we will have them one day, sooner or later. One way or the other. ... like we have Zarqawi," referring to the recent killing by U.S. forces of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

As far as the whereabouts of these top leaders, Karzai said, "They are not in Afghanistan, none of them."

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