WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Korean hostage killed by Taliban
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-26 01:07
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police discovered the bullet-riddled body of
a South Korean hostage Wednesday as the Taliban released eight other
captives who were taken to a US military base, officials said.
Because of a recent spike in kidnappings -- including an attempt against
a Danish citizen Wednesday -- police announced foreigners were no longer
allowed to leave the Afghan capital without their permission.
A relative of South Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan reacts as they
watching TV news reports on negotiations in Seoul, Wednesday, July 25,
2007. Taliban militants claimed they shot and killed one Korean hostage
on Wednesday while a group of abductees was freed and taken to a US
military base, officials said. [AP]
The male South Korean victim was found with 10 bullet holes in his head,
chest and stomach in the Mushaki area of Qarabagh district in Ghazni
province, the region where 23 South Koreans were kidnapped last week,
said Abdul Rahman, a police officer.
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.
Two Western officials said some of the 23 hostages had been released. One
of the officials, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't
authorized to share the information, said six females and two males were
taken to the main US base in Ghazni.
An Afghan official involved in the negotiations earlier said a large sum
of money would be paid to free eight of the hostages. The official spoke
on condition he not be identified, citing the matter's sensitivity. No
other officials would confirm the account.
Foreign governments are suspected to have paid for the release of
hostages in Afghanistan in the past, but have either kept it quiet or
denied it outright. The Taliban at one point demanded that 23 jailed
militants be freed in exchange for the Koreans.
The South Koreans, including 18 women, were kidnapped July 19 while
riding a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway,
Afghanistan's main thoroughfare. Fourteen Koreans apparently remain in
Taliban hands.
South Korea has banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan in the
wake of the kidnappings. Seoul also asked Kabul not to issue visas to
South Koreans and to block their entry into the country.
The South Korean church that the abductees attend has said it will
suspend at least some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also
stressed that the Koreans abducted were not involved in any Christian
missionary work, saying they provided only medical and other volunteer
aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country.
Two Germans were also kidnapped last week. One was found dead and the
other apparently remains captive. A Danish reporter of Afghan origin
escaped a kidnap attempt in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Danish
Foreign Ministry said.
The unidentified man "was close to being caught but managed to get away
and reach a local police station," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ole
Neustrup said. The Dane was first reported to be German but that report
was false, Khan said.
The series of recent kidnappings prompted the Afghan government to forbid
foreigners living in Kabul from leaving the city without police
permission.
Police said officials stationed at checkpoints at the city's main gates
would stop foreigners from leaving the capital unless they informed
officials 24 hours in advance of their travel plans, said Esmatullah
Dauladzai, Kabul's provincial police chief.
Elsewhere, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said a soldier
was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday by a rocket-propelled
grenade. ISAF didn't release the soldier's nationality, but the majority
of troops in the east are American.
Britain said one of its soldiers was killed and two others injured when
an explosion struck their vehicle in southern Helmand province on
Wednesday.
The US-led coalition said 20 suspected Taliban militants were killed
Wednesday after a failed ambush on coalition and Afghan troops in
Kandahar province.
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