IP-FLASH London Times story: Mullah Omar 'is captured'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001560012-2001565548,00.html
>
>
> SATURDAY DECEMBER 08 2001
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>
> Mullah Omar 'is captured'
>
>
> BY ROLAND WATSON IN WASHINGTON, CATHERINE PHILP IN QUETTA AND MICHAEL 
> EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
> MULLAH MUHAMMAD OMAR was last night apparently being held captive as the 
> Taleban lost control of their spiritual stronghold of Kandahar in a major 
> breakthrough for the American-led coalition.
>
> The Taleban leader was near the city in the custody of a warlord 
> sympathetic to the fundamentalist regime, Khaled Pashtoon, a spokesman for 
> Gul Agha Sherzai, a Kandahar commander, said.
>
> Mr Pashtoon said that Mullah Omar was being held in a "(Taleban)-friendly 
> environment", but his group would demand that the Taleban Supreme Leader 
> be handed over, probably to the new Afghan government, at a tribal meeting 
> this morning.
>
> Hamid Karzai, the new head of the Afghan interim government said that he 
> did not know the location of Mullah Omar. "But of course I want to arrest 
> him. I have given him every chance to denounce terrorism and now the time 
> has run out," he said.
>
> Mullah Omar's apparent captivity will boost Western morale at a time when 
> many thought that the goals of the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan 
> were not being met. It raises the prospect, however, of tortuous 
> negotiations over a possible trial between the Americans and the new 
> Afghan administration.