CUBA: The United States has released 11 Afghans held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on suspicion of Taliban links after a request from President Hamid Karzai, an Afghan official said yesterday.
The prisoners were among dozens of Afghans and hundreds of other militants taken to Guantanamo by the US military after US-led troops invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the fundamentalist Taliban in 2001.
"Following the government's repeated efforts, 11 prisoners have been freed from Guantanamo," said presidential press official Rafiaullah Mojadidi, adding that the 11 were now back in Afghanistan.
Among those released was a top tribal figure, Nayem Koochi, who served as a Taliban commander during the group's rule from 1996 to 2001. The others either worked for the Taliban or were held on suspicion of siding with the militants.
US-led forces toppled the Taliban after it refused to hand over al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The US military has already freed dozens of Afghans from Guantanamo who were held for suspected links to the Taliban or al-Qaeda. But the 11 men were the first to be freed at Mr Karzai's request since the US-backed President was installed in power after the Taliban's fall.
Mr Mojadidi said the government would press for the freedom of other Afghans held at Guantanamo.
In March, a group of 23 were freed from Guantanamo and some complained of being unfairly detained and being treated worse than animals.
The latest releases come a week after Mr Karzai freed Mawlavi Qalamuddin, a deputy minister of the Taliban's feared religious police, officially known as Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Mr Karzai has been attempting to woo moderate Taliban ahead of the October 9th presidential elections, which the Taliban and their allies have vowed to disrupt. In doing so he will be hoping to win votes from his own Pashtun tribe, Afghanistan's largest, from which the Taliban derive most of their support, and ease an insurgency that has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the past year.
Mr Karzai is one of 18 candidates contesting the election and is favourite to win, but his main rivals have called for the polls to be postponed, citing a lack of security.
Analysts say US President Bush is keen to see the election held on time so that he can hold up Afghanistan as a foreign policy success story to set against Iraq ahead of his own November re-election bid. - (Reuters)