By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL, April 28 (Reuters) - The Taliban on Saturday said they had freed a French woman aid worker as President Hamid Karzai marked the anniversary of the end of communist rule with a fresh offer of olive branch to the resurgent Islamic guerrillas. Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the woman, identified only as Celine, was freed as a gesture of goodwill in the southern province f Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland. Speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location, he added the deadline for the release of her male French colleague, Eric, and three Afghan workers for the Terre d'Enfance aid group had been extended by a week. There was no immediate confirmation from Kabul or Paris. The Taliban want France to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and release of Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government. At a colourful ceremony in Kabul for the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet-backed communist regime, Karzai again pleaded with the Taliban to talk peace. "Today, while celebrating the jihad victory, we once again invite those who have sided with aliens because of seduction against their nation, to give up sedition and evil and join peaceful life," he said. DISABLED FIGHTERS The ceremony was marked by a military parade that included disabled victims of Afghanistan's fighting -- in wheelchairs and on crutches -- as well as a display of Soviet-era tanks, modern American Humvees and camels. The parade passed one of the capital's most famous and oldest mosques, as well as mud-brick ruins from civil war among the Mujahideen (holy warriors) that followed the collapse of communist regime. Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since soon after the Taliban were ousted in 2001, first called on rank-and-file militants to rejoin society more than three years ago and has repeated his offer several times, but few have responded. He has opened talks with former Taliban leaders in Kabul, but few details have emerged publicly. He is due to fly to Turkey on Sunday for talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Taliban use of Pakistan as a sanctuary and training centre will be high on the agenda. Pakistan denies any continued formal support for the group it helped to power in the 1990s, but the issue of cross border infiltration has soured ties between Islamabad and Kabul. And in an interview published on Thursday in the Spanish daily El Pais Musharraf accused Karzai of weakness on terrorism. Fighting last year was the worst since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban and many say this year will be bloodier. On Saturday, U.S. and Afghan forces killed 10 Taliban insurgents after the militants ambushed a convoy in Helmand, the U.S. military said in a statement. And a member of the U.S.-led coalition, a group running operations separate from the main NATO force, was killed in fighting in western Herat province on Friday. His nationality was not given. A NATO air strike also killed 13 Taliban guerrillas in the southeastern province of Khost after the insurgents tried to attack a district government headquarters on Friday, provincial officials said on Saturday. Saturday's ceremony in Kabul, which included a flypast of helicopters and planes, marked the end of 10 years of Soviet-backed communist rule in which at least two million died. But the end of the occupation also triggered years of civil war that killed tens of thousands and ended with the rise to power of the Taliban in 1996. Unlike past years, former Mujahideen era president Burhanuddin Rabbani and another Mujahideen leader, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, were not present. Although members of Karzai's government, they have helped form a new opposition bloc seeking a reduction in his powers.
