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US captures two top Taliban leaders
( 2002-02-09 09:39 ) (7 )

Security lights illuminate Camp X-Ray where al-Qaida and Taliban detainees are held at the Guantanamo US Naval Base, Cuba early Friday Feb. 8, 2002.

Two senior Taliban leaders have surrendered, and are now in US custody, Pentagon officials said Friday night.

One of the two is the former foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, who was among the most-wanted members of the fundamentalist Islamic regime.

Muttawakil was also widely considered a moderate with a much-cleaner reputation than the rest of the Taliban.

The other Taliban leader in custody has been identified as the former Northern intelligence chief. His identity was not revealed, and military and intelligence sources he is not on the United States' top 25 list.

The only other major Taliban official in US custody is Abdul Salam Zaeef, their former ambassador to Pakistan. He was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January, and turned over to US officials. The kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl have named Zaeef's release as one of their demands.

Meanwhile in eastern Afghanistan, US soldiers have arrived at the site of a missile attack on a group of men believed to be high-ranking members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network after being delayed for four days by bad weather.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a Penatgon briefing today that more than 50 personnel arrived to "exploit any intelligence that can be gathered at the site" near Zawar Kili.

On Monday, a remote-controlled Predator spy-plane fired two Hellfire missiles at a group of heavily-guarded men standing next to a truck.

Because of their mode of transport, the presence of heavy security, and the fact that the men were in Arab-style dress, US officials believe the men were members of Osama bin Laden's Arab-dominated organization.

Because one of the men was unusually tall, there was also some speculation that bin Laden himself may have been killed. Bin Laden is believed to be about 6 feet 4 inches tall.

But at Friday's Pentagon briefing, Myers, joined by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said they did not know if bin Laden had been one of the targets in the attack.

"The strike was on some individuals. Who is to be determined," Myers said. "That's what they're gathering the intelligence on."

Wazir Khan, a brother of regional warlord Bacha Khan, said seven people were killed in the attack, but Osama bin Laden "is not among those people."

It was unclear if the team at the site now included forensics specialists who could help determine who was killed, but Myers said the team may have to bring evidence back to US bases for further examination.

From Proxy to Peer?

In Islamabad Friday, Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai began his first official visit to neighboring Pakistan since he came into power.

As part of frantic efforts to end factional fighting across the nation, and to bridge the gap between Afghan anti-Taliban interests and the former backer of the hard-line regime, he met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Their meeting is believed to have focused on the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Although Karzai was based in Pakistan while the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, Islamabad's support for the hard-line Islamic regime has created deep hostilities between anti-Taliban Afghans and the Pakistani government.

Before Sept. 11, Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan is widely resented by Afghans loyal to the Northern Alliance, which with US support ousted the Taliban, and Karzai faces a major challenge maintaining a fine balance in Afghan ethnic politics.

But since Pakistan changed its policy after the Sept. 11 attacks and sided with Washington in the military campaign in Afghanistan, efforts have been made by the international community to bridge the gap between Islamabad and anti-Taliban forces.

Pakistan has pledged a substantial amount of reconstruction aid to Afghanistan and it hosts about 2 million Afghan refugees, many of whom have been living in Pakistani border towns for two decades. Karzai's visit came as senior leaders from eastern Afghanistan headed to the capital of Kabul today for talks aimed at resolving factional feuding in and around the town of Gardez.

More than 60 people were killed last week when forces loyal to rival commanders clashed in Gardez.

And in Mazar-e-Sharif, Friday's deadline for the withdrawal of rival forces appeared to hold. Security forces controlled by Karzai's administration were in control of the strategic northern Afghan city and troops loyal to rival militias had withdrawn from the city, a local commander said on Friday.

Rights Group Criticizes US Reading of Geneva Convention

Meanwhile, a planeload of 28 Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday, where they joined some 150 prisoners being held in a temporary detention facility.

Rumsfeld said Friday that detainees there have provided some "important information" that may have helped to prevent terrorist attacks.

Following recent international protests over the United States' treatment of the detainees, US President Bush has announced that the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war would apply to captured Taliban members, but not al Qaeda fighters.

But speaking at a news briefing in Washington on Thursday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer stressed that neither Taliban nor al Qaeda prisoners would qualify as prisoners of war.

Several human rights groups have criticized Bush's announcement claiming the United States was attempting to "rewrite" rules on prisoners of war for its own ends. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International today issued a statement saying Bush was wrong to take such a decision "without convening a competent tribunal, as required by the Geneva Conventions."

Iran Blocks British Ambassador

In other developments:

** The official count of those killed at the World Trade Center is down to 2,843, after months of double-checking and confirmations by investigators. The number once topped 6,700.

** Amid fears that President Bush's assertion that Iran was on an "axis of evil" was tipping the scales in favor of conservative forces in Iran, Tehran rejected Britain's choice of a new ambassador, calling him a "Jewish MI6 spy."