Omar surrender to be resolved 'within days'

Negotiations have reached a "crucial stage" for the surrender of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, with a resolution expected within two days, an Afghan intelligence official said today.

"We have received positive response from those tribal chieftains who are sheltering Omar and his associates in Baghran," Nusrat Ullah, a senior intelligence official in the southern city of Kandahar, told The Associated Press.

Mullah Omar has been told that if he does not surrender by Saturday, the Baghran area north of Kandahar, where he is believed to be hiding, may face US air strikes.

"A breakthrough in this regard is expected soon," Mr Ullah said.

A team of prominent anti–Taliban leaders, headed by Helmand province Governor Sher Mohammed,is negotiating final terms, Mr Ullah said. The talks began Monday.

Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gulali and Gov. Gul Agha are in touch with the negotiating team, he said.

"Mullah Omar is the murderer of thousands of Afghan people, and after his arrest, he would be handed over to the Kabul administration for a trial under under existing laws," Mr Ullah said.

In Kabul, some 320 Taliban prisoners were released by Afghanistan's new interim government after spending up to five years or more locked away by Northern Alliance groups.

Security Ministry officials called it a gesture of national reconciliation and that more releases would follow. It was not known if the prisoners included al–Qa'ida fighters.

"We are very pleased with the government," said Abdul Shukur, one of the newly freed prisoners from different parts of the country who were dropped off in Kabul, where they boarded chartered buses to their villages.

"God willing, I'm on my way home to see my family," he said.

Most of the Afghan nationals appeared to be in good health. Some had spent more than five years in detention. Others were rounded up in October and November as the northern alliance pushed toward Kabul.

In Jalalabad, more than 800 fighters belonging to Nangarhar province's ruling council began hunting al–Qa'ida members, the Pakistan–based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

The hunt started in the Chaparhar area, between Jalalabad and Tora Bora, the last stand of al–Qaida fighters in eastern Afghanistan. The agency's report said fleeing al–Qa'ida members may be hiding there.

During a 29–hour mission that began Monday, Marines found documents, guns and other items that could be useful, defence officials said, after initially denying reports that Marines had been deployed from their Kandahar base.

About 200 Marines from the Kandahar airport bases searched a 14–building compound west of the city, trying to locate former Taliban rulers who went underground after the fall of Kandahar, one of their last strongholds.

Officials said yesterday that it was not specifically an effort to capture Omar or bin Laden.

Mullah Omar has been in hiding since the fall of Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold, a month ago. Baghran, a mountainous region, is in the same general area where Marines and anti–Taliban soldiers launched a major military operation.