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Ananova; Reuters. 6 December 2001. Kandahar surrender starts Friday, says Zaeef; Britain Cannot Confirm Omar to Surrender Kandahar. The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan says Mullah Mohammed Omar has agreed to surrender Kandahar, starting tomorrow. Abdul Zaeef also said the Taliban is finished as a political movement. He also said newly-appointed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai had agreed to release all Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan and give them a free passage home. Zaeef said: "I think we (the Taliban) should go home." He said Omar had secured unspecified protection for himself. Zaeef said Omar's decision was in response to heavy US bombing of Kandahar, and was intended to prevent more civilian deaths. Previous deals to surrender Kandahar and other cities stalled over the issue of Arab, Pakistan and other foreign fighters loyal to alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Hundreds of al-Qaida fighters are believed in Kandahar, especially around the airport where they beat back assaults by tribal fighters under former Kandahar governor Gul Agha. The United States has made clear it would not support any deal which allowed bin Laden or his lieutenants to escape prosecution. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also insisted that Mullah Omar should not be allowed to go free. Britain said on Thursday that most senior Taliban figures in Kandahar wanted to surrender but could not confirm reports that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had decided to hand over the group's last stronghold. "We do not have independent verification of these reports but we do know that, for the past 24 hours in particular, virtually every senior person around Mullah Omar knows the game is up and wants to surrender," Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman told Reuters. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Thursday that Mullah Omar had agreed to give up Kandahar to a former Mujahideen leader who is not currently aligned with any faction. "As the prime minister told cabinet this morning, the Taliban resistance is coming under pressure from inside and out," Blair's spokesman said. "If this (AIP) report is accurate, it is probably because he is aware desertions are going on around him ...ammunition is low and he now knows that he and the Taliban are a spent force." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
