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Taliban factions may be using British forces to assassinate rival commanders - Asia, World - The Independent

Taliban factions may be using British forces to assassinate rival commanders - Asia, World - The Independent: "Five months ago Mullah Dadullah's brother, Mansoor Dadullah, who is said to have held secret talks with the West about the possibility of changing sides, was critically wounded and captured by Pakistani security forces.

He had inherited the command of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan from his brother, but he is said to have held subsequent meetings with Western diplomats, acting on behalf of the British, to defect with 2,000 of his men. It was these talks, which the government of Hamid Karzai insisted were unauthorised, that led to the expulsion of Michael Semple, the acting head of the European Union mission to Afghanistan (who has worked as a British diplomat in Pakistan), and Mervyn Patterson, a senior UN official.

Just before the diplomats were thrown out, a Taliban spokesman said that Dadullah had been dismissed from his command for 'disobeying orders' and activities 'against the Taliban's rules' at the orders of the movement's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar."

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