US Holds Ex-Taliban Ambassador Zaeef

ISLAMABAD, Sunday - US forces are holding and questioning former Taliban spokesman and ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef, the best known face of the deposed hardline regime in Afghanistan, a US official said. The US official said on Saturday the Taliban representative, who became the former Islamic regime’s principle voice to the outside world at the start of the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, was arrested overnight. He may be the highest-ranking Taliban official in US custody. Zaeef was undergoing interrogation onboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan on the Arabian Sea, said the official on condition of anonymity. Pakistan, one-time ally of the ousted Taliban, detained Zaeef for questioning on Friday and released him into the custody of US forces, the official said. But Pakistan’s foreign ministry merely said on Saturday that Zaeef was returned to Afghanistan after being refused permission to stay in Pakistan. “He crossed the border into Afghanistan... since he did not have any longer a valid visa to stay in Pakistan. He was asked to leave the country which he did,” foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Khan said. The US official said: “The US military wanted Zaeef under custody to determine what he knows, what intelligence he might be able to provide — names, locations — any information he might have in his head that might be helpful in understanding the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda.” “He will be treated like any other prisoner,” said the official.Zaeef is being held on the same ship as John Walker, the American al-Qaeda fighter taken prisoner in Mazar-i-Sharif on December 2. The US is holding 307 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokeswoman Tori Clarke told CNN.The Washington Post said the US was also holding one of al-Qaeda’s highest-ranking members, Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a native of Libya, reportedly ran training camps for the group. AFPEnds