Senior Taliban Officials Defect

NEW YORK, Thursday - Significant numbers of senior officials of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, including the head of military intelligence and at least two government ministers, have defected to Pakistan, CBS Evening News said on Wednesday. One of the ministers who were not identified, said he was “fed up” with the “stupid and dangerous ways” of the Taliban’s spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, according to the CBS report, which could not be immediately verified independently. The Pentagon said on Wednesday that senior leaders of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, being attacked by the U.S. military over the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 5,900 people, are increasingly cut off from their troops. Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told reporters the thrust of a two-month U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan is now to sever the Taliban and al Qaeda chain of command. U.S. leaflets and radio broadcasts over Afghanistan urging members of the Taliban to defect have produced some results, Stufflebeem said, without elaborating. Reuter Ends