A radical Indonesian Muslim group on Tuesday said that none of the roughly 300 volunteers it has sent to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban had been captured or killed.
"There were rumors that some of our fighters had been captured but after checks, they turned out to be just that -- rumors," Syuaib Didu, chairman of the Islamic Youth Movement (GPI), told AFP.
"Our verifications showed that all our men are alive and none has been captured. Seven were lightly injured by falls and five others suffered from digestive ailments but all are alive," Didu said.
He did not say how his organization had conducted the verification.
The GPI started recruiting volunteers to fight alongside the Taliban shortly after the United States launched attacks on Afghanistan on October 7 in reprisal for the September 11 terror strikes.
The radical outfit claims to have sent some 300 men to Afghanistan to fight alongside thousands of other foreign volunteers in Taliban ranks.
"They are now grouped in small guerrilla groups in the southern parts of Afghanistan, mainly around Kandahar or at the border area," Didu said.
Reports have said that scores of Indonesians were detained by the Northern Alliance following its victories against Taliban forces over the past fortnight.
The government has said it is trying to trace the whereabouts of the Indonesian fighters in Afghanistan through its embassy in Pakistan. – Jakarta (AFP)
