KABUL - Three senior Taleban ministers, implicated in massacres and the repressive regime's most brutal decrees, have surrendered to opposition forces in Afghanistan.
They are likely to be handed over to the United States military for interrogation and prosecution.
Among them is the Minister of Justice, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the closest Taleban ministers to suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, and the Minister of Defence, Mullah Ubaidullah Akhund, believed responsible for a series of massacres last year.
But Mullah Mohammad Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taleban, and bin Laden, remain at large, and a hard core of al Qaeda guerrillas are regrouping in eastern Afghanistan.
The number of Taleban leaders seized by opposition forces and handed over to the US has grown in the past week since the arrest of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, outspoken former Taleban ambassador to Pakistan.
Also detained is the head of the Taleban's information department and a senior spokesman, Abdul Hayee Motmain, and the Minister of Mines and Industry, Mullah Saadudin.
The capture of Turabi and Akhund is a major breakthrough for American forces in their four-month hunt for the people behind the September 11 bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said 346 al Qaeda and Taleban detainees were being held in Kandahar, Bagram, Mazar-i-Sharif and on the aircraft carrier USS Bataan. Most will be flown shortly to US military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, for interrogation.
"We're using that as a way to help build a larger intelligence picture, which may include where can we go to get these others."
If he talks, Turabi could provide a fascinating insight into the mindset of the men who instigated one of the most repressive regimes on earth.
As Justice Minister he was the author of the most far-ranging and brutal Taleban decrees, including banning women from work and education. He also banned light entertainment such as music, television and movies, defectors say.
Akhund, the former Defence Minister, was part of the Taleban delegation overseeing the destruction of the 50m giant Bamiyan Buddhas, which had stood since the fifth century.
He was also named by United Nations investigators as involved in a systematic massacre of 178 people last January when people of the Yakaolang area rebelled.
A UN report, obtained by the American paper Newsday, said Mullah Omar, with help from Akhund and others, coordinated a series of massacres by radio from Kandahar.
Admiral Stufflebeem, speaking after US warplanes attacked a cave complex at Zhawar Kili near the Tora Bora region, said al Qaeda guerrillas appeared to be regrouping. They were hiding in small numbers and trying to reassemble.
First details of the covert operations by American special forces have also begun to emerge.
One special forces group, codenamed Tiger 03, which guided US bombers, has been credited with the deaths of 1300 Taleban and al Qaeda fighters and the destruction of more than 50 tanks and heavy weapons.
Tiger 03 was one of at least a dozen Green Beret teams composed of up to 18 lightly armed infantrymen and air controllers inserted by helicopter from Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after October 20.
Among the most important pieces of equipment they carried were laser-devices to help guide bombers to destroy ground targets.
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