Two senior diplomats expelled from Afghanistan

While the paper did not link Semple and Patterson's expulsion Thursday to its report the day before, it insisted in Thursday's issue that there is "a growing conviction within the diplomatic community in Kabul that negotiation to split less ideologically driven elements from the Taliban represents the key to neutralizing its potency," the paper said.

The Guardian suggests that the expulsion highlights the "growing tensions over Kabul's great burning issue: can the Taliban be brought to the negotiating table?"

Britain is quietly spearheading efforts to engage militants who are ready to quit the Taliban, although Downing Street vehemently denies reports that MI6 opened talks with some Taliban commanders last summer, trying to convince them to stop shooting by appealing to their better feelings - or through large cash payments.

The enthusiasm for deal-making has echoes of the Raj, when British officers roamed the wild Pashtun lands. But it is most firmly rooted in Britain's struggle to tame Helmand, where more than 7,000 troops are trapped in a bloody fight against an obdurate enemy.

The policy has been resisted by the US military, which is suspicious of attempts to negotiate with "terrorists" and which instead relies heavily on military force.

Ordinary Afghans are also desperate for the violence to end but fear a return to the Taliban government, the Guardian says, adding that the UN also believes "it is possible to separate the hardcore leadership linked to Al Qaeda from less ideological commanders."

Spies and soldiers are playing the Great Game "as much as their forefathers did," says The Independent in Britain, adding that lack of coordination between the various agencies may be the problem.

"Great Britain's long association with Afghanistan has shown that we got ourselves into this country by forming tribal alliances. Equally we will get ourselves out, over time, by forming tribal alliances that support the government of Afghanistan," said Brigadier Mackay in a classified briefing document issued to top officers across Helmand on 30 October. "Everything we do will have as its singular focus our ability to influence the population of Helmand in order that we can retain, gain and win their consent."

... The great gamesmen of today believe the Musa Qala pair were declared personae non gratae because of a rift within the Afghan government about who to talk to in the Taliban and when to start talking to them. A Kabul expert explained: "On the one hand Karzai is telling the Taliban to come and talk and offering the ministerial jobs. But this is an opportunity for him to kick the international community and say who's 'the daddy round here.' "

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