Former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan addicted to iPhone

Washington, Feb 14 (ANI): The Taliban, which follows an extremely strict and anti-modern ideology, are well known for banning music, movies and all sorts of conveniences are no more averse to latest iPhones.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan until late 2001, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, surprised Al Jazeera reporter Hamish Macdonald during an interview earlier this month when whipped out his iPhone.

"I'm addicted. The Internet is great on this - very fast," reportedly said Zaeef, who now lives under house arrest comfortable on the outskirts of Kabul.

Macdonald says on his official blog that Zaeef then showed him and his film crew his favorite Web sites, FOX news reported.

"I half expected him to log on and show us 'Taliban Twitter,'" writes Macdonald.

Zaeef became well known on Western television during the interim period between the September 11 attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan.

He held multiple news conferences in which he both condemned the terrorist attacks and insisted that Osama bin Laden, then a guest of the Taliban, was not responsible.

He then spent more than three years in US custody, including significant time at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, before being freed in 2005.

Zaeef now serves as a go-between between the more moderate elements of the Taliban and the Afghan government and its allies. (ANI)