AFGHANISTAN: U.S. military frees 33 Taliban suspects from Bagram airbase as part of an Afghan reconciliation programme

Record ID: 290723

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: U.S. military frees 33 Taliban suspects from Bagram airbase as part of an Afghan reconciliation programme
  • Date: 9th June 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF RELEASED SEATED PRISONERS WAITING FOR THE CEREMONY PRISONERS SITTING
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Afghanistan
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAEH6839WSL2Y66XFUNBIT6K3XC
  • Story Text: The U.S. military freed 33 Taliban suspects from Bagram airbase on Thursday (June 8) as part of an Afghan reconciliation programme, while the militants' insurgency raged on with assassinations, ambushes, and roadside bombs.
    The government first offered an olive branch to the Taliban to lay down their arms two years ago, and prisoners are being released to coax fighters back into the mainstream.
    Several men among the latest batch freed told Reuters they were wrongly picked up in the first place.
    "I am innocent, they had arrested me for no reason and no crime. I spent 20 months in jail, I am not from any political group," Mohammad Nahim said on the sidelines of a news conference at the office of Reconciliation Programme in Kabul.
    Meanwhile, the defence ministry said two insurgents were killed in an operation east of Kabul.
    Another prisoner said: "I am so happy to be released after 19 months in prison my little ones have lived alone with no body to look after them. I am a labourer," Said Abdul Hai.
    In Ghazni province, southwest of the capital, a roadside bomb killed three Afghan troops, and the Taliban also killed two policemen in an ambush in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday evening.
    In neighbouring Zabul, police on the outskirts of Qalat city caught a donkey laden with explosive materials and mortar rounds attached to a remote-controlled detonator before it was blown up.
    A roadside bomb had wounded four coalition soldiers in Zabul a day earlier.
    The guerrillas' offensive is believed to be aimed at weakening NATO members' resolve before its peacekeeping troops take over command next month of the violent southern provinces of Afghanistan, currently under coalition control.
    NATO defence ministers began a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday, to finalise the 26-member alliance's plans to increase NATO troop strength in Afghanistan to 17,000 from 9,000.
    After next month's handover of the south to NATO command, the U.S.-led coalition will be left only in control of the eastern region, while its troop strength is expected to be cut from 23,000 to around 20,000.
    The insurgency has been concentrated in the south and east, but few places are completely safe, with criminals and drug runners also stirring the pot.
    Unidentified gunmen killed an Afghan aid worker with Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance, and wounded two others in the same vehicle in the northern province of Balkh, an official with the western-funded relief agency said.
    In the western province of Farah, a district chief was shot dead in a bazaar.
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