Taliban Hold Secret Talks With Afghan President

Source: Associated Press

Published: October 31, 2010

Filed at 9:54 a.m. ET

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Three Taliban leaders secretly met with Afghanistan's president two weeks ago in an effort to weaken the U.S.-led coalition's most vicious enemy, a powerful al-Qaida linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.

Held in Kabul, the meeting included a wanted former Taliban governor and an imprisoned militant who were flown to the capital from the Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to a former Afghan official.

The talks were not directly linked to the Afghan government's efforts to broker a peace with the Taliban and find a political resolution to the insurgency. Rather, they were part of an effort to weaken the Haqqani network, the former official said over the weekend. A Western official, who spoke anonymously because he had no authority to discuss the talks, confirmed that a meeting between President Hamid Karzai and Taliban figures had taken place, but did not know its full details or the names of all the participants.

Led by the ailing Jalaluddin Haqqani and controlled by his son, Sirajuddin, the network is thought to be responsible for most attacks against U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan and has been a key U.S. military target. The network is linked to al-Qaida and is believed to be sheltering its second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/31/world/asia/AP-AS-Afghanistan-Taliban-Talks.html?_r=1&ref=news