KABUL, Nov 7, (Agencies): The Taleban called on the US Congress on Sunday to send a “fact-finding mission” to Afghanistan to investigate what they called the lies and propaganda spread by American military chiefs to prolong the war.
The Islamist militant group has been fighting for more than nine years to topple the Kabul government, which is backed by 150,000 US and NATO troops.
In the past year, Taleban influence has spread across the country from their bastion in the south where the war is concentrated, and momentum has been widely seen to have turned in their favour.
The statement, addressed to “Messers American Congressmen,” was emailed to AFP and signed by Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, “spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.

It suggested the Congressional team travel throughout Afghanistan to uncover “ground realities” it said are being concealed by military leaders eager to give the impression of victory.
The resistance to the US-led war against the Taleban was indigenous, the group said, contrary to claims by Washington it was influenced from outside the country.
The Taleban leadership is believed to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where it is thought to fund, plan and man operations in Afghanistan.
According to media reports, studies and top NATO figures, it does so with the support of Pakistan’s intelligence service, though Islamabad has denied the allegations.
The Taleban occasionally issue such statements, which are generally dismissed by Washington and its partners backing the Kabul government.
The Taleban said that if the US government would not provide proof of its claims, “then how about another experiment? Send a team to Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission”.

“The team should have freedom of movement and should be allowed to remain far from the clutches of your intelligence agencies,” it said, adding that US military leaders were unlikely to allow the team to do so.
The statement accused US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan US General David Petraeus, and other “military brass” of exaggerating battlefield successes to appear victorious and for financial gain.
Meanwhile, the bodies of five Afghan policemen have been found in eastern Afghanistan nearly a week after they went missing after an attack by Taleban fighters on a local government headquarters, police said Sunday.
Wardak provincial police chief Gen Abdul Haq Haqnawaz said villagers discovered the bodies Saturday night in Chek district.
Sixteen Afghan policemen went missing Nov 1 after Taleban fighters overran the Khogyani district seat in Ghazni province and torched government buildings.
The bodies of four of the policemen were found a few days later in Ghazni city. Another seven are still missing.
Disgruntled lawmakers and candidates in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election, marred by allegations of fraud, renewed protests on Sunday over the poll and warned of possible violence if a fresh vote was not carried out.

No results have been declared nearly seven weeks after the election. The protests are another sign of political instability in Afghanistan, already facing a growing Taleban-led insurgency.
Joined by hundreds of supporters, the candidates and members of parliament who had sought re-election denounced the election as illegal.
“We condemn the Sept 18 election and call it as illegal and ask the government to hold another election,” read a banner carried by protesters as they marched past the palace of President Hamid Karzai and UN headquarters.
The protesters later headed to the US embassy and delivered a resolution on the election, lawmaker Daoud Sultanzoy said.
“We said that the results of the election will further worsen Afghanistan’s security and force millions of people to head to the mountains” to take up arms, Sultanzoy told Reuters after the demonstration.
“We said this election should be scrapped.”
The United Nations was the key organiser of the vote. The United States, which has the bulk of some 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, was among major donors for the elections.