U.N. withdraws staff from Kandahar

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 29. The United Nations has stopped operations in southern Afghanistan after its offices were raided twice by armed Taliban soldiers in search of an escaped opposition leader, a U.N. official said today.

``The Taliban violated the immunity of the U.N. offices by entering forcibly,'' the U.N. spokesperson, Ms Stephanie Bunker said. She said the Taliban first entered U.N. offices in Kandahar on Sunday shortly after Mr. Ismail Khan, a top Afghan opposition commander known as the ``Lion of Herat'', escaped from a Taliban prison there.

Ms Bunker said a representative of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry apologised, but then on Monday ``it happened again, and property was damaged and staff was intimidated''. ``A special flight was sent in to take out five international staff, national staff were told to stay home, all missions and all programmes have been stopped. This is for all of the south region,'' Ms Bunker said.

Opposition sources said that Mr. Khan had managed to escape to an anti-Taliban area in the north. ``He arrived overnight in our territory and is safe and sound,'' Mr. Abdullah, a senior opposition spokesman said. He did not say how Mr. Khan managed to reach the area, which is the 10 per cent of Afghanistan not ruled by the Taliban. ``At this moment, we can't say anything for security reasons,'' Mr. Abdullah said.

Earlier, an independent Afghan news service said Mr. Khan had fled to Iran.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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