Taliban forces handed control of the southeast Afghan province of Zabul to tribal leaders on Sunday, bringing their hardline rule of the country to an end, an Afghan news agency said.
"The rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan has totally ended," the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said.
The Taliban had agreed to hand over Zabul, along with neighbouring Kandahar and Helmand provinces, under terms negotiated on Thursday with Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun chieftain and the designated head of a new Afghan interim government.
Helmand and Kandahar have already fallen.
(China Daily December 10, 2001)
