Taliban kill SKorean hostage in
Afghanistan
KANDAHAR,
Afghanistan
A deadline imposed on 22 surviving South Koreans kidnapped by the
Taliban passed early Thursday, hours after the rebels demanded a
prisoner swap after killing their first hostage.
There was no immediate news on the fate of the abductees following
the 2030 GMT deadline (1.00am local time) and a leading Taliban
figure called for more foreign kidnappings.
The South Korean government confirmed the death and appealed for
the other hostages to be released unharmed.
"One of our citizens kidnapped in Afghanistan has been confirmed to
have been killed on July 25," foreign ministry spokesman Cho
Hee-yong told a press briefing on Thursday.
"The government once again urges (the kidnappers) to immediately
release the hostages and we will continue to do our utmost to win
their safe release," the foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as
saying by the Yonhap news agency.
Police found the bullet-riddled body of the Korean, one of a group
of Christian aid workers, a few hours after the Taliban said they
had executed him because talks to secure the release of eight
insurgent prisoners had stalled.
"We killed one of the Koreans today because the government is not
being honest in talks," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by
telephone from an unknown location on Wednesday.
The police chief of Ghazni province, where the Taliban are holding
the Koreans, said the badly-wounded body was dumped in a remote
area several miles from the nearest road.
"We've recovered the body. It had 10 bullet holes," police
commander Alishah Ahmadzai said.
In an alarming intervention, the Islamist militia's apparent new
military commander used a television interview to urge rebels to
kidnap as many foreigners as possible.
Speaking to Britain's Channel 4
News from an undisclosed location along the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border, Mansour Dadullah, who took over from his brother Mullah
Dadullah killed by coalition troops in May, also said that the
Taliban planned to use children to behead hostages.
He advocated kidnapping foreigners to trade them for Taliban
captives -- Dadullah himself was released from prison by
Afghanistan in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist earlier
this year.
"Of course, kidnapping is a very successful policy and I order all
my mujahideen to kidnap foreigners of any nationality wherever they
find them and then we should do the same kind of deal," Dadullah
told the broadcaster.
As tensions mounted on Wednesday, the head of the government
delegation negotiating the release of the Koreans, Waheedullah
Mujadadi, said the Taliban had opened fire on him in a buffer zone
between Taliban and government controlled areas.
"I managed to escape the attack. They were trying to kidnap me as
well or kill me," he said.
The militants -- who were ousted from power in Afghanistan by
US-led forces in late 2001 -- set the 2030 GMT Wednesday deadline
for Afghan authorities to accede to their demands for the release
of the jailed Taliban fighters.
"We call on the South Korean government, parliament and its people
to pressure the Afghan government to accept our demands or we'll
kill more hostages after the deadline passes," Ahmadi said.
An Afghan governor and the Taliban both denied a report by South
Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified government
official in Seoul, that eight of the Koreans were freed
Wednesday.
"Talks continue but no one has been freed so far," said Ghazni
governor Mirajuddin Pattan. Rebel spokesman Ahmadi said the claim
was "government propaganda."
South Korean and Afghan officials earlier travelled to Ghazni to
lead efforts to free the Koreans, the biggest group of foreigners
to be abducted during the Taliban's nearly six-year
insurgency.
Any prisoner exchange would run counter to President Hamid Karzai's
pledge not to allow the practice after his government in March
freed Dadullah and four other Taliban militants in exchange for the
Italian reporter.
A fresh hostage crisis was defused Wednesday when Taliban rebels
freed a Danish journalist and his Afghan companion several hours
after abducting them overnight in eastern Kunar province bordering
Pakistan.
Officials earlier said the reporter was German.
Provincial governor Shalizai Didar said the pair were abducted
after they travelled to the restive Watapour district to report on
a NATO-led air strike which killed several Afghan civilians some
two weeks ago.
"They were freed with no conditions through the power and
cooperation of peace-loving local elders," Didar said.
How does one even talk to such barbarians?! What kind of
"muslims" are these people?!!!
