Karzai calls on Taliban to drop weapons

Afghanistan's president is calling on the Taliban to relinquish their weapons, asking the militant group's leader to join the political process. Hamid Karzai's appeal on Thursday was the latest in a series he has recently made. All past requests have been ignored by the insurgency - which refuses to engage the government directly. Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been on the run since the U.S. invasion, and the group has been fighting the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan government for more than a decade. The Taliban have refused peace talks with Karzai, saying he is a puppet of the United States. Instead, they have held talks directly with American officials. They broke off talks earlier this year, saying the U.S. reneged on a promise to release Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.