11.   On Thursday Zaeef said the decision to destroy the statues was not the result of increasing international isolation of the Taliban.

12.   One demanded that a Buddha statue there be destroyed.

13.   Taliban rulers have said they will destroy the statue if they manage to capture the Bamyan Valley from their Shiite enemies.

14.   The secretary-general has already written to the Taliban asking that it rescind a recent order to destroy every statue in the country.

15.   The statue was destroyed in the April attack.

16.   The Taliban also banned photography, destroyed giant statues of Buddha, which were ruled idolatrous by the Taliban.

17.   They want the statue destroyed, but the abbot at the temple and many people in his town want it kept because it has become a tourist attraction.

18.   Zaeef said the troops would use explosives to destroy the statues.

19.   Koren told police he wanted to destroy the statues of saints in the church, which as an observant Jew he considered idolatrous, Israel radio said.