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Taleban 'given commander's body' Taleban handed commander's body
(about 6 hours later)
Taleban rebels say Afghan officials have handed over to them the body of senior commander Mullah Dadullah in exchange for the release of hostages. The Taleban say Afghan officials have handed over to them the body of former senior commander Mullah Dadullah in exchange for the release of hostages.
The rebels said they have released a number of hostages they have been holding. They killed another hostage earlier this week. Dadullah, who was killed last month in a battle, has been reburied in southern Kandahar province, the Taleban said.
There has been no immediate comment on the Taleban claim from the authorities. Four hostages held by the Taleban have been freed, Afghan officials confirm. There is no news of a fifth hostage.
The Taleban commander, who was killed last month, was accused of a string of bombings, beheadings and kidnappings. A Taleban spokesman said earlier the man was killed because the government delayed handing over Dadullah's body.
A Taleban spokesman said Mullah Dadullah's family members had received the dead commander's body in the old city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and had reburied it in a city graveyard. There was no immediate comment on the Taleban claim from the authorities.
He said the Taleban had freed three Afghan hostages working for the health ministry, along with the decapitated body of a doctor in the same group. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul says government figures have tended to distance themselves from any link between the two issues.
Feared 'Blindfolded'
Another man also calling himself a Taleban spokesman put the number of hostages released at four, which would account for all those in the group who have been held since March. Mullah Dadullah was one of the Taleban's most brutal and feared commanders, linked to a string of bombings, beheadings and kidnappings, and the dispatching of suicide bombers.
They were abducted after administering vaccines in a refugee camp. They opened our eyes and told us to go since our relatives were waiting Musa, Released hostage
The police in the region said they were unable to confirm or deny the Taleban's accounts. He was killed three weeks ago fighting US-led troops in Helmand province.
It now seems clear that the captors did behead the doctor two days ago. A Taleban spokesman said on Thursday that Mullah Dadullah's family members had received his body in the old city of Kandahar and had reburied it in a city graveyard.
At the time they alleged that the government had failed to honour a pledge to release Dadullah's body. The government said later four Afghan hostages had been released by the Taleban.
This was despite the Ministry of Interior announcing earlier that the body was ready for collection and President Hamid Karzai repeatedly ordering that it be handed over. A spokesman for the health ministry, Dr Abdullah Fahim, said the four men, who worked for the ministry, had arrived at the regional health directorate in Kandahar province.
Mullah Dadullah was one of the most feared Taleban commanders, linked to numerous kidnappings and beheadings and the dispatching of suicide bombers. He said there was no news of the fifth hostage, but that the four said they had been separated from him a few days ago.
He was killed three weeks ago in southern Afghanistan. Dadullah was a feared and brutal commander
Musa, one of the freed hostages, said he and his colleagues had been released in Gereshk district of Helmand province on Thursday morning, before officials took them to Kandahar.
"This morning the Taleban blindfolded us and put us in a vehicle," Musa told the Associated Press news agency.
"In Gereshk they opened our eyes and told us to go since our relatives were waiting."
The five male health workers - a doctor, three nurses and their driver - were abducted after administering vaccines in a refugee camp.
Their captors alleged that the government had failed to honour a pledge to release Dadullah's body.
Our correspondent says this was despite the interior ministry announcing the body was ready for collection and President Hamid Karzai repeatedly ordering that it be handed over.