U.S. Says Body Held by Taliban Is Not American
Tuesday, November 06, 2001 12:25 AM EST

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said Tuesday that a man who died in Taliban custody in Afghanistan was not an American citizen as reported by the Afghans.

``The body is not an American, we've made that determination,'' said an embassy spokesman a day after the Taliban reported the death of an ``American'' in a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

The Taliban had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to take the body to Pakistan but the ICRC said it could not accept the body until it knew if there was a government or relatives waiting to receive it.

The Taliban said the unidentified man had been arrested inside Afghanistan while traveling under a pseudonym. They said the man, who reportedly died after falling ill in jail, may have been a spy.