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MI6 agents met senior Taliban members on several occasions over the summer. |
CAIRO — Despite clear denial from Prime Minister Golden Brown, British intelligence agents have been engaged in secret talks with Taliban, which is waging a protracted guerrilla war against US-led foreign forces and the West-backed Kabul government.
"The SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban with them coming across as some sort of armed militia," an intelligence source told Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, December 26.
He said intelligence agents met senior Taliban members on several occasions over the summer at houses on the outskirts of Lashkah Gah and in villages in the Upper Gereshk valley, to the north-east of Helmand's main town.
A British infantry force slapped a security cordon around the venue of the meetings, attended by Afghan officials to give the impression that the Kabul government was leading negotiations with Taliban.
"These meetings were with up to a dozen Taliban or with Taliban who had only recently laid down their arms," said the source.
"The impression was that these were important motivating figures inside the Taliban."
Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when it was ousted by US-led foreign troops.
Since then, the group has been engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare against foreign forces and the Kabul government.
A November report by the Senlis Council said that Taliban has permanent presence in more than half of Afghanistan.
Tactic
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London declined to comment on the report.
"We do not comment on intelligence matters."
The new revelation comes only two weeks after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with Taliban.
"I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these people," he told the House of Commons earlier this month.
The Telegraph said the meetings between British intelligence agents and Taliban are thought to be a cause of anger for the Americans.
The US publically refuses negotiations with the Taliban.
Though Western governments also hold the line that the Taliban must not be negotiated with, they privately argue that dividing the group and splitting the leadership is a legitimate strategy.
The Guardian reported on Monday, October 15, that British and Afghan officials, realizing the ineptitude of the military force against Taliban, were courting "moderate" Taliban leaders to split the group.
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