Share this story!            

Eighty Taliban surrender weapons, join Afghan police

* 4 wounded as rocket hits luxury hotel in Kabul
* 23 Taliban killed in separate clashes
* Child killed while planting bomb for Taliban

KABUL/HERAT: Eighty Taliban on Saturday laid down their weapons and joined Afghanistan’s police force, accepting a government amnesty aimed at ending a vicious insurgency, police said.

In a ceremony at police headquarters in the eastern city of Herat, the 80 men handed over their weapons and pledged to end their fight against the government, said Herat police chief Asmatullah Alizai.

“Negotiations have been going on with their commander Solaiman, as we have been trying to absorb him into the government,” he said, referring to Mula Solaiman, a former border guard commander who changed sides a number of times.

The decision by the 80 Taliban came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai again offered an olive branch to the Taliban to reintegrate into Afghan society.

Strike: A rocket hit the outside wall of the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul on Saturday, wounding four people, including two boys, a Health Ministry official said.

Ministry spokesman Ahmad Raaid said an Afghan soldier was also hurt in the attack.

“None of the wounds are serious,” he told Reuters.

An employee of the hotel said there was no damage to the hotel. Police sealed off the roads leading up to the hotel, which is near the presidential palace, witnesses said.

No more details were immediately available.

Several rockets were fired at the hotel three weeks ago, forcing more than 100 people to rush into an underground bunker, on the same day as gunmen killed five foreign UN staff in a separate attack on a Kabul guesthouse.

Killed: Meanwhile, local and foreign troops claimed to have killed 23 Taliban in separate operations a day after the Afghan president pledged to take responsibility for security in his new five-year term, AFP reported. The Taliban were killed on Friday in clashes in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the police said. Eleven Taliban died during an operation in Zahri district in southern Kandahar province, deputy provincial police chief Fazal Ahmad Shirzad said, adding that the Taliban bodies were left at the scene. Eight Taliban were killed in the Sanzari area of the same district, he said.

In eastern Kunar province, Taliban claimed casualties among foreign troops after clashes in the Manogai district, but the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said only four militants were killed.

Influenced child: Separately, a 13-year-old Afghan, forced by the Taliban to plant a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, was killed when the bomb exploded midway, the Interior Ministry.

The child died while placing the improvised explosive device (IED) on a road in the Zahri district of southern Kandahar province, where Taliban influence is concentrated, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry condemned the ‘terrorists’ for using the child to “achieve their grim objectives”. “This action is against Islamic and human values. The Interior Ministry strongly condemns this barbaric action of terrorists,” it said. Roadside bombs – cheap and easy to make but almost impossible to detect – have become the weapon of choice for the Taliban. agencies

Home | National

Share this story!