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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

At least 13 militants were killed in a clash with security forces following arrest of five burqa-clad Arabs, one Afghan national and a local man in Mohmand Agency on Tuesday. Four of the five Arabs are Saudi nationals — Ahmed, Ali, Mohammad and Obaidullah — and one Libyan national, Abdullah. The Afghan national has been identified as Habibullah and the local man as Shad Ali. They were detained at the Khapakh checkpost. The Afghan was living in Chakdara area of Lower Dir. When troops were taking the detained men to Ghalanai, about 60 militants attacked them in an area between...

At least a dozen militants, including foreigners, were killed today in a missile strike on a Taliban commander's compound in Pakistan's restive Bajaur Agency bordering Afghanistan. Local residents said a pilotless drone fired two guided missiles at the compound of Taliban commander Maulvi Obaidullah in the Damadola area of Bajaur Agency late tonight. Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar confirmed the attack but did not give details. Locals said Taliban fighters cordoned off Obaidullah's home and madrassa after the missile strike and did not allow people to approach the area. Pakistani TV news channels gave varying death toll figures. Dawn News...

LAHORE: Intelligence agencies have once again arrested the Taliban Majlis-e-Shura’s former defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund along with two other Afghan nationals from Lahore, along with two other Afghan nationals, intelligence sources told Daily Times on Sunday. The sources revealed that Obaidullah had been arrested in 2006 in Quetta and was released after around nine months, after which he fled to in Afghanistan. This time he arrived in Pakistan to generate funds, the sources said, adding that he, along with Pakistani allies, had visited several cities in this regard. The sources revealed that Obaidullah had arrived in Pakistan in the...

Pakistani lawyers, human-rights activists and opposition-party members can scarcely ignore the irony of their situation: while thousands of them are being beaten and locked up under President Pervez Musharraf's newly declared state of emergency, his government has just let more than two dozen militant Islamists out of jail. Protesters might be even angrier if Musharraf disclosed the names of some of those freed militants. Taliban sources tell NEWSWEEK that the top man on the list was Mullah Obaidullah Akhund—the highest-ranking Taliban official ever captured by the Pakistanis. As one of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's closest confidants and his defense...

A Swiss newspaper claimed on Sunday that the Taliban's former Defense Minister was free two days after his reported capture by Pakistani security forces. The Swiss weekly Sonntagsblick said one of its reporters spoke to Mullah Obaidullah Akhund on February 28 unhindered in an Islamic School in the southwestern city of Quetta. Akhund, considered a key ally of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was the most senior leader from the hard-line militia to be reported arrested since US-led troops ousted it from power in 2001. Several Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said earlier this month that he...

Taliban concede capture of Obaidullah, at last Major setback for Taliban; Mulla Omar’s whereabouts unknown DUBAI: Though the Taliban initially denied the arrest of their former defence minister Mulla Obaidullah Akhund in Quetta, one of their important military commanders and a few other officials are now reluctantly admitting that the news of his capture appears to be true. Requesting anonymity, the Taliban military commander told 'The News' that he was now 80 per cent convinced that Mulla Obaidullah has indeed been arrested. Speaking from an unknown location, he said he was earlier unable and unwilling to believe that one...