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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 25, 2001

Afghan Alliance Holds 50 Pro-Taliban Foreign Mercenaries

The Afghan Northern Alliance has so far held some 50 pro-Taliban foreign mercenaries since the alliance's victory in the battlefield, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.


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The Afghan Northern Alliance has so far held some 50 pro-Taliban foreign mercenaries since the alliance's victory in the battlefield, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

"Some 50 foreigners fighting for the Taliban have been so far arrested and imprisoned in Kabul," which is now under the control of the alliance, said Mohammad Abolfazl, military leader of Afghanistan's Islamic Movement Party (IMP) , who represents the IMP at the present Kabul Security Commission under the alliance.

He told the IRNA that "the detainees are kept in prison for further investigation and trial. They will be subject to the court's verdict."

Kabul has so far been calm following the collapse of the Taliban and the people there have welcomed the present security arrangement, Abolfazl said.

The U.S. has been pounding the ruling Afghan Taliban militia since October 7 for harboring Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terror attacks on Washington and New York.

Taking the advantage of the U.S. military strikes, the Northern Alliance forces under the ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani have been increasing their military actions on the Taliban and seized the capital of Kabul and most areas that were controlled by the Taliban, who seized the power in 1996.

Iran has welcomed the victory of the Northern Alliance and recognizes the government of Rabbani, ousted by the Taliban militia in 1996, as the sole legitimate government.




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