More idiocy from military officials who refuse to understand that jihadists will perceive demonstrations of compassion only as weakness. From Reuters, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military freed 76 Taliban suspects on Saturday as part of an effort to encourage rank and file guerrillas to lay down their arms, the latest batch freed this year despite a surge in militant violence.
The men, detained at various stages in the U.S.-led battle against Taliban guerrillas since toppling the fundamentalists from power in 2001, were freed from a U.S. military detention center at the main U.S. base at Bagram to the north of Kabul.
“I am very happy that today some of our brothers have been freed and are joining their families,” Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a former president who heads the government’s reconciliation initiative, told the former prisoners at a ceremony in Kabul.
Most were from southern and eastern Afghanistan, where Taliban guerrillas remain most active.
They were the latest freed since President Hamid Karzai called for release from custody of all Afghan prisoners in U.S. detention following an outcry over reports of abuse, including the deaths of two inmates at Bagram.
Another group of 57 were freed early this month, 53 in June, 86 in May and 81 in January.