KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Seven high-ranking Taliban officials, including the ex-justice minister, surrendered to Afghan commanders but were set free by local officials, the Afghan government said Wednesday, even though U.S. officials want Taliban leaders turned over. \nForeign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad told reporters the government was determining whether the Taliban officials were "war criminals." They included Nooruddin Turabi, the Taliban's one-eyed, one-legged justice minister, who drew up the militia's repressive version of Islamic law, including restrictions on women, and created the religious police to enforce it. \nA State Department spokesman said senior Taliban officials should be in U.S. hands. "We would expect that to be the case with these individuals," Richard Boucher said in Washington. \nNegotiations on the surrender of ex-Taliban figures have recently frustrated the U.S.-led coalition as it pursues the remnants of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar reportedly escaped during surrender negotiations after being surrounded in the mountainous north of Kandahar. \nIn other military activity, U.S. officials said airstrikes continued Wednesday against at complex of caves, tunnels and buildings used as an al Qaeda training camp at Zawar Kili in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. \nThe Taliban leaders were let go, said Jalal Khan, a close associate of Kandahar's governor Gul Agha, after they recognized the government of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and promised to stay out of politics. \n"Those men who have surrendered are our brothers, and we have allowed them to live in a peaceful manner. They will not be handed over to America," Khan said. \n The government was trying to determine who the seven men freed in Kandahar were and whether the decision to let them go was "appropriate," Samad said. He said so far there had been no U.S. request for their handover. \n Pentagon officials have said the new Afghan leaders are fully aware of the U.S. desire to have custody of certain Taliban and al Qaeda leaders. \n The Pentagon was still working to confirm the seven had been freed. But if they were, "we would expect that they would take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that these folks are not left on their own," Lt. Col. Dave Lapan.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to bolster the new government's authority in the capital, Karzai ordered armed men to leave Kabul's streets and return to their barracks within three days or be put in jail, Interior Minister Younus Qanooni said. \nThe order allows only uniformed police on Kabul's streets, where fighters from various Afghan factions bristling with rocket launchers and automatic weapons have moved freely since the Nov. 13 departure of the Taliban. International peacekeepers in the city are also armed. \nSamad said the government only learned on Wednesday that the Taliban prisoners had been freed. "We assume they went back to their homes and villages," said Samad. "Maybe guarantees have been given that they will not leave their villages." \nHe answered obliquely when asked if the Karzai government would hand the men over to the United States. "This is an issue that is being followed and should be followed by all concerned parties in Kabul and Kandahar." \nAlso among the seven men was Abdul Haq, formerly the Taliban's security chief in the western city of Herat, Samad said. But the identity of the others was unclear. "It's still not 100 percent certain for us either as to who exactly some of these people are," Samad said. \nJustice minister Turabi drew up the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law, including bans on music and restrictions on women. His religious police roamed the streets beating women considered not properly covered, as well as men who trimmed their beards or cut their hair. \nKandahar was the birthplace of the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, and Omar remained based there even after the militia took power in most of the country in 1996. It was the last major Taliban-held city to fall, with the militia's leadership agreeing to abandon the city in early December. \nIn other developments: \n—The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba is nearing readiness for Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners, and the first of an expected 2,000 or more captives are to be transfered to the facility by the end of the week. \n—The bomb-damaged main runway of Kabul's airport could be cleared of mines and reopened by early next week to give a boost to relief and military efforts, the British military spokesman in Afghanistan, Maj. Guy Richardson, said. \n—Britain put 120 of its elite Gurkha soldiers on standby to go to Afghanistan next week to join British-led peacekeeping troops there. \n—The Vatican announced it will auction off items donated by bishops, priests and lay people Thursday to raise money for Afghan refugees.
