Talibs hiring Arab mercenaries with criminal record

Wednesday, January 26, 2000 8:31 AM EST

ISLAMABAD, January 26 (Itar-Tass) - The Talibs are actively hiring Arab mercenaries with a criminal record to fight the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan. This was stated here on Wednesday to an Afghan newspapers by a certain Razzal Tai, who came to Kabul from the United Arab Emirates.

He said that young men, wanted for different crimes committed in the Gulf countries, prefer to escape to Afghanistan by joining Talib units. The method of their recruitment is very simple. Razzak Tai, for instance, applied to the Talib embassy in the United Arab Emirates, where he was immediately provided with a tourist visa and with a letter from "the ministry of foreign affairs" to the Talib administration, allowing him to freely move across the territory of Afghanistan. The Arab "tourist" stressed that he was not a volunteer, but simply a mercenary.

At present, hundreds of Arabs are fighting not only for the Islamic regime, but are being regularly sent to reinforce the detachments of Osama bin Laden, who is hiding in the Afghan province of Qandahar. Only men from the Arab states are reportedly included in the squad of this notorious international terrorist's bodyguards.