Taliban accuse NATO of genocide, blast kills 14

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Oct 27 (Reuters) A bomb ripped through a bus in southern Afghanistan today killing 14 civilians as the Taliban, accusing NATO forces of genocide, threatened to step up already rising suicide attacks.

''We want to inform the foreign forces and their slaves that their defeat is inevitable in Afghanistan,'' the Islamist group's one-legged military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location.

''The Taliban's mujahideen are ready to fight until death and in the coming days will increase their activities and suicide attacks to such an extent that the infidel forces will not get a chance to rest,'' he said.

The warning came as a provincial official said a bomb had killed at least 14 civilians in the rugged southern province of Uruzgan.

The blast tore through a bus, but officials said it was not clear if it was a suicide attack or a roadside bomb.

Dadullah denied NATO charges the guerrillas used villagers as human shields in combat against foreign forces, and instead accused the alliance of killing women and children.

''The Taliban will not let the killers of Afghan women and children rest in peace and will continue to target them.'' Witnesses and officials say NATO air strikes in Kandahar province, where the Taliban began and remain strong, killed at least 50 civilians this week in an area the alliance had said it had cleared of insurgents in a recent offensive.

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