FATE OF WESTERNERS IN AFGHANISTAN UNKNOWN

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today warned the Taliban that the UK will hold them responsible for the safety of British journalist Yvonne Ridley.
Her fate is unknown despite signs that she was due to be freed before Sunday night’s military strikes launched by the US with British involvement.
Ridley was arrested in Afghanistan on September 28 and held on suspicion of spying, a charge that carries the death penalty. The Taliban´s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar reportedly ordered the release of the Sunday Express reporter on Sunday, but it is not known if she was freed before the US and UK began their attacks on targets belonging to the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden´s Al Qaeda network. The fate of the two Afghan guides who were arrested with her is also unknown.
Ridley´s father, Allan, said military action had been the news they were dreading.
"We just feel fear, fear for her safety. We don´t really know where she is, they said they took her to Kabul. The Taliban have just been playing for time all along and it has not got any easier for us."
On Saturday the Taliban had made a desperate last-ditch bid to avoid attack, announcing that it was releasing the British journalist Yvonne Ridley and would negotiate the release of eight foreign aid workers facing the death penalty on charges of preaching Christianity if America would halt its bellicose stance.
The offer was immediately rejected by a White House spokesman, who said that the time for negotiation had run out. He went on: “The President [George Bush] has made clear from the beginning that the Taliban need to release the aid workers and that it is time for action, not negotiation.”
Today the US said it will carry out further air assaults on Afghanistan for several nights to come.