Afghan officials consider Taliban ministers' surrender

Afghan officials are considering a reported offer of surrender by several ministers from the ousted Taliban regime, while US troops have captured two senior al-Qaida figures near the underground cave complex at Tora Bora.

Intelligence officials in Kabul would not comment on conflicting reports over the surrender of the leading Taliban figures, thought to include the defence and justice ministers.

Commander Sadozai, a high-ranking security official in Kandahar, said Governor Gul Agha and others were meeting to decide how to handle the Taliban members as they gave themselves up.

But by other accounts, government officials have already granted former Taliban ministers a general amnesty, allowing them to go free unless they are later accused of a specific crime.

Negotiations on the surrender of ex-Taliban figures have frustrated the US-led coalition, especially the apparent escape last week of the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, while he was reportedly surrounded by anti-Taliban fighters in the mountainous Baghran district.

In Washington, America’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers, said US troops in the bombed-out Tora Bora complex near the border with Pakistan had captured two senior al-Qaida members.

Besides seizing their computers and mobil telephones, ‘‘some small arms and training documents were also found,’’ Myers said. ‘‘We’re exploiting those as we speak.’’ The Americans are looking for clues to future al-Qaida operations and organisational details.

The two men, found in a group of 14 suspected members of al-Qaida, were deemed sufficiently important to be removed immediately to the US-run detention centre in Kandahar, where more than 300 prisoners are being held.