Afghan government warns Taliban regrouping

Afghan authorities are warning that the Taliban are regrouping outside the country.

Afghan authorities are warning that the Taliban are regrouping outside the country.

Afghan interim Foreign Minister Mr Abdullah Abdullah said some former leaders were forming new organizations to oppose the government in Kabul.

"There are two organizations outside Afghanistan," he said. "We do not have details of the organizations or their structure but on the whole it is not acceptable that the Taliban be able to act either outside or inside Afghanistan in any capacity," Mr Abdullah said.

Most Taliban leaders who fled Afghanistan are thought to be in neighboring Pakistan, which had previously given backing to Taliban rule. Mr Abdullah said he received assurances from Pakistani officials on a visit to Islamabad on Friday with Afghan interim leader Mr Hamid Karzai that Pakistan would take measures to prevent such activities.

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But distrust has lingered between Pakistan and Afghanistan's Northern Alliance group of military factions, which dominates Mr Karzai's government.

Within Afghanistan, US troops continued their effort to track down Taliban officials and remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

A team of 50 US troops yesterday investigated the site of a missile strike in southeastern Afghanistan to try to determine who was killed in the attack.

  • A group of 34 prisoners captured during the Afghan war have arrived at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the total there to 220. The US holds another 237 prisoners in Afghanistan.

A senior US army officer said interrogators were struggling to identify prisoners as Taliban or al-Qaeda.

"A large number claim to be Taliban, a smaller number we have been able to confirm as al-Qaeda, and a rather large number in the middle we have not been able to determine their status," said Brig Gen Michael Lehnert.

Meanwhile, In Kabul, about 270 Afghan Taliban prisoners were released in a ceremony at the presidential palace.

"We decided some time back we should release everybody who did not have a bad record, who were not terrorists but just ordinary people," Mr Karzai said.