Americans Question Ex-Taliban Official
Feb. 9 -- The former foreign minister of the Taliban, who surrendered to U.S. custody Friday, is being questioned at a U.S. military base today, officials said.
As interrogators questioned Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil at the American base at the Kandahar, Afghanistan airport, bad weather today was hampering a team of U.S. soldiers trying to find out whether other senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders died in an attack by a CIA spy drone in a remote area of Afghanistan.
Muttawakil surrendered Friday to local officials in Kandahar, The Associated Press reported. Though he was considered a relative moderate when he was the Taliban's foreign minister, Muttawakil still was among the U.S.'s most-wanted members of the fundamentalist Islamic regime.
U.S. forces also took custody of another Taliban official Friday. Officials would not reveal his identity except to say he was the Taliban's former northern intelligence chief, and military and intelligence sources said he was not on the United States' top 25 most wanted list.
U.S. officials are hopeful Muttawakil will provide them with important intelligence about Osama bin Laden, who the United States calls the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America, and former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who the U.S. accused of sheltering bin Laden. Both men have eluded capture since the United States began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7.
Officials of the interim Afghan government said they, too, hope to question Muttawakil, and they applauded his capture. Afghanistan's current foreign minister said he hoped it would serve as a message to other Taliban leaders that they can't escape justice.
"They should face justice," Abdullah Abdullah said. "They should be tried — here in Afghanistan, in an international tribunal or in the United States. That will not make a big difference."
The only other major Taliban official in U.S. custody is Abdul Salam Zaeef, their former ambassador to Pakistan. He was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January, and turned over to U.S. officials. The kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl have named Zaeef's release as one of their demands.
Trending Reader Picks
ABC News Live