KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanista's new government released 269 Taliban prisoners on Thursday, most of them captured as long as five years ago by Northern Alliance forces.
The men were freed from a prison in central Kabul and given 500,000 afghanis (20) each by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to get back to their homes, mostly in southern Afghanistan.
The gesture underscored the confidence of the interim government that formally took power on December 22, about five weeks after the Taliban collapsed, worn out and bloodied by several weeks of blistering U.S. bombing.
Looking pale but reasonably healthy, and very relieved, the men queued up to collect their wads of crisp, new Afghanis before gathering their few belongings and heading out of the prison compound.