KABUL, 23 July 2007 — A purported Taleban spokesman said yesterday that the militia was extending by 24 hours the deadline for the Afghan government to trade captured militants for 23 South Korean hostages.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taleban, said the militants were giving the Afghan and South Korean governments until 7 p.m. today (1430 GMT Monday) to respond to their demand that 23 Taleban prisoners be freed in exchange for the Koreans.
A police chief in Ghazni province said Afghan officials and elders had met with the kidnappers yesterday to resolve the crisis. US and Afghan troops also surrounded the area in southern Ghazni province where the Koreans are thought to be held in case military commanders decide to carry out a rescue operation.
“As soon as we receive the order, we will start the operation,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi. Neither the Afghan nor Korean governments have commented on the purported Taleban offer. A delegation of eight Korean officials arrived in Kabul yesterday and met with President Hamid Karzai over the crisis.
Ahmadi said Taleban commanders wanted to give the South Korean government an extra 24 hours to persuade the Afghan government to release the Taleban prisoners, and a US spokesman said a rescue operation appeared unlikely for the moment. “We will only launch rescue operations or military action at the request of the Afghan and Korean governments,” said Lt. Col. David Accetta. “We do not want to jeopardize the lives of the Korean civilians.”
Earlier yesterday, villagers found the body of a German aid worker kidnapped in neighboring Wardak province on Wednesday, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hewas Mazlum.
Ahmadi said Saturday that militants shot the Germans dead because their country had not pledged to pull its 3,000 troops from Afghanistan. But Afghan and German officials said intelligence reports indicated that one died of a heart attack and the other was still alive. Mazlum said he did not know the cause of death of the German.
The militants kidnapped the Koreans on Thursday while they were riding on a bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, where they live and work, some at medical facilities.
Khwaja Mohammad Siddiqi, the police chief of Ghazni province’s Qarabagh district, said the delegation of Afghan officials and elders traveled to speak with the kidnappers.
