WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Taliban kill one Korean hostage, some freed
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-25 20:43
The Taliban movement in Afghanistan set 4:30 am on Thursday (Bejiing
Time) as the last deadline for its South Korean hostages, a spokesman
said after reporting the group had shot dead one of the 23 captives.
Family members of the South Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan watch
television news in Seoul July 24, 2007. [Reuters]
"If the administration of Kabul is not ready to release our hostages,
then by 1:00 am (local time) the rest of the hostages will be killed,"
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an
unknown location. "That time is the last deadline."
Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed that one of the
hostages had been shot and killed around 4 p.m., and a police official
who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the
situation said militants told him the hostage was sick and couldn't walk
and was therefore shot.
The Associated Press reported a group of abductees was freed and taken to
a US military base, citing officials.
Some of the 23 Korean hostages, meanwhile, had been freed and were taken
to a US base in Ghazni, two Western officials said who asked not to be
identified. The officials did not know how many had been freed. The South
Korean news agency Yonhap said eight Koreans had been freed.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged not to swap prisoners for
hostages after being heavily criticised both at home and abroad for
releasing five Taliban from jail in March in exchange for an Italian
reporter.
The kidnappings have made travel outside major cities risky for the
thousands of foreign aid workers and United Nations staff in Afghanistan
and may weaken support for military involvement among the more than 30
nations with troops in the country.
The 23 Korean church volunteers -- 18 women and five men -- were seized
in Ghazni province on the main road south from Kabul last week.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a German journalist and his Afghan translator
kidnapped in the east of the country overnight were freed on Wednesday.
One other German and four Afghans abducted last week are still in
captivity.
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