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Afghan people will rise against Taleban: Rumsfeld

United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asserted the Taleban and the Al Qaeda would lose popularity as the US bombings continued.

"The more the Taleban uses the mosques for headquarters, and for command and control, and for ammunition storage and move their (anti-aircraft) batteries into the residential districts near schools and hospitals, the people of Afghanistan don't like that. And they're going to be moving away from the Taleban and away from Al Qaeda," Rumsfeld told NBC.

"And there's no question but that there are plenty of opposition forces in the north and tribes in the south that are against the Taleban. And there are people who have been a part of the Taleban who are tired of having Al Qaeda bring this kind of carnage and damage to their country. There's enormous numbers of Afghan people starving because of the Taleban," he added.

Earlier, Rumsfeld acknowledged that a small number of US ground troops are with opposition forces inside Afghanistan.

The US troops have been helping the Northern Alliance with resupply, communications, targeting and other specific information that has helped make the air strikes more effective, he added.

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