Afghan UAE embassy says Taleban guards going home .  Hilary Gush  DUBAI 1996-08-22  Three Afghan guards brought to the United Arab Emirates last week by Russian hostages who escaped from the Taleban militia will return to Afghanistan in a few days , the Afghan embassy in Abu Dhabi said on Thursday .  " Our ambassador is in touch with the UAE foreign ministry .  Their return to Afghanistan will take place in two or three days , " an embassy official said .  " The embassy is issuing them travel documents for their return to their homeland .  There is no objection to their travel , " he added .  The three Islamic Taleban guards were overpowered by seven Russian aircrew who escaped to UAE state Sharjah last Friday on board their own aircraft after a year in the captivity of Taleban militia in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan .  The UAE said on Monday it would hand over the three to the International Red Crescent , possibly last Tuesday .  It has since been silent on the issue .  When asked whether the three guards would travel back to Kandahar or the Afghan capital Kabul , the embassy official said : " That has not been decided , but possibly Kandahar . "  Kandahar is the headquarters of the opposition Taleban militia .  Kabul is controlled by President Burhanuddin Rabbani 's government , which Taleban is fighting to overthrow .  The embassy official said the three men , believed to be in their 20s , were currently in Abu Dhabi .  He did not elaborate .  The Russians , working for the Aerostan firm in the Russian republic of Tatarstan , were taken hostage after a Taleban MiG-19 fighter forced their cargo plane to land in August 1995 .  Taleban said its shipment of ammunition from [START_ENT] Albania [END_ENT] was evidence of Russian military support for Rabbani 's government .  Moscow said the crew 's nationality was coincidental .  Numerous diplomatic attempts to free the seven failed .  The Russians , who said they overpowered the guards -- two armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles -- while doing regular maintenance work on their Ilyushin 76 cargo plane last Friday , left the UAE capital Abu Dhabi for home on Sunday .
Albania