KABUL, 24 November 2004 — Three foreign UN workers held hostage in Afghanistan were freed unharmed yesterday, almost four weeks after their abduction at gunpoint on a Kabul street raised fears of a wave of Iraq-style kidnappings.

Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Kosovan Shqipe Hebibi and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan were “abandoned” early in the morning at an unidentified location in Kabul, the interior minister said. He denied any deal had been done to free them.

The hostages were freed a day after US and Afghan forces mounted operations in downtown Kabul and to the north of the city in which one suspect was killed and more than a dozen detained, including a doctor working for the United Nations, but it was not clear if these led to their release.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called the release of the hostages “a major defeat to terrorists who wanted to export an Iraq-style of hostage-taking in Afghanistan”.

The three were abducted on Oct. 28 after helping run a presidential election won by US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai and had been threatened with death by a Taleban splinter faction, Jaish-e Muslimeen, which claimed to hold them.

The workers were snatched from their UN vehicle in a busy street just a few hundred meters from their office.

Work of UN and other foreign relief organizations, already greatly restricted in the south and east of the country by militant’s violence, was further hampered as foreign staff were largely confined to compounds for fear of more abductions.

“We are very, very happy and very relieved,” said UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva, adding that the workers appeared in good health and good spirits.

Video obtained by Reuters of the UN workers at the house of UN Special Representative Jean Arnault showed them looking tired but smiling broadly as they embraced colleagues.

Asked how he felt, Nayan replied: “Very, very good...but can I just quickly change.”

Jaish leader Akbar Agha insisted Flanigan and Nayan were freed in return for 24 Taleban prisoners, and Hebibi after an appeal by Kosovan businessman Behgjet Pacolli, a family friend.

Akbar denied any ransom had been paid while Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali insisted no deal of any kind had been done.

“No prisoners were released, no money was paid, no demand was met of the hostage takers,” the minister told a news briefing. “And to my knowledge, no other parties paid money.”

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid tribute to the government’s “crucial role” in freeing the hostages and said the United Nations would continue to work to boost staff security to enable it to fulfill its mandate in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.

Jalali described the kidnappers as “criminals” but said they could have been hired by Jaish. He vowed they would all be brought to justice.

Echoing threats of militants in Iraq, Jaish had threatened to behead the hostages, but the kidnappers let deadline after deadline pass and even let the hostages phone home.

The United States had warned against any deal to free the trio, saying it would only encourage more kidnapping.

Pacolli, who spent weeks in Kabul working to release the hostages, denied paying money. “I am very, very happy,” he said. Asked if his group would carry out more kidnappings, Agha replied: “We will use every tactic to secure the release of the Taleban jailed either by the US forces or the government.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed delight. “The determination of those committed to rebuilding Afghanistan remains as strong as ever,” Straw said.