Diplomats expelled from Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Afghanistan formally expelled a senior U.N. official and the acting head of the European Union's mission there for allegedly meeting with Taliban militants.

Irishman Michael Semple with the European Union and Briton Mervyn Patterson with the United Nations stand accused of meeting with Taliban militants in defiance of the wishes of the central Afghan government in Kabul.

Officials with the European Union and the United Nations lobbied the Afghan government to reverse its decision, which one unnamed U.N. official described as "foolish" and harmful to the reconstruction progress, The Times of London said Thursday.

Afghan officials issued expulsion orders following a visit by the pair to Musa Qala in the drug-laden Helmand province to meet with various Afghan leaders following a British-led effort to drive out Taliban militants.

Unidentified Afghan sources told The Times that Taliban leaders paid the diplomats and claimed they supported the insurgency against Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wishes but British officials claimed the meetings involved low ranking Taliban members and that the Afghan government sanctioned the meeting.

A spokesman United Nations in Kabul, Aleem Siddique, said the pair engaged tribal elders in Musa Qala on a fact-finding mission following the British mission to expel Taliban militants.

Siddique added that security mandates forbid U.N. diplomats from engaging Taliban leaders.