Associated Press

Kabul, Jun 26: A six-year-old Afghan boy has revealed how the Taliban tried to trick him into carrying out a suicide bombing against US troops.

The account from Juma Gul, who collects scrap metal for money, provoked anger from tribal leaders in the district of Andar and left US soldiers dumbfounded that a child could be sent on such a mission.

Afghan troops on Saturday crowded around the boy, turning him into a minor celebrity as he recounted his tale.

Suicide vest

Gul said Taliban fighters some time last month forced him to wear a vest they said would spray flowers after he touched a button.

''They told me to press it (the button) and the flowers will be thrown all over. Enter the district office, when you see a lot of Americans, throw yourself on them,'' Gul told AP Television at a joint American-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan.

''The bomb was placed in a vest and it was wrapped around my body and the control wire was attached to my hand,'' he added.

According to Gul's account, the militants cornered him in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan. He said when he realised it was a bomb in the vest, he went to Afghan soldiers for help.

''We want to publicise this as much as we can to the Afghan people so that they can protect their children from these killers who are willing to use children, exploit them and try to use them to bomb us,'' NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesperson, Major John Thomas, told AP Television on Monday.

The Taliban dismissed the story as propaganda, but both Afghan tribal elders and US soldiers said they were convinced by the boy's dramatic account.