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Taliban abducts 18 Koreans
20/07/2007 20:41 - (SA)
Kabul - Taliban gunmen halted a bus and kidnapped 18 South Korean passengers, including 15 women, as it travelled on a highway from Afghanistan's capital, the hard-line Islamic militia said on Friday.
A South Korean church said it was checking to see whether the abductees were its members.
"We are investigating, who are they, what are they doing in Afghanistan," said Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesperson.
"After our investigation, the Taliban higher authorities will make a decision about their fate. Right now they are safe and sound," Ahmadi said, speaking on a satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
Fate of the Koreans remains unknown
The Koreans were seized on Thursday in Ghazni province, as they were travelling from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, said Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the provincial police chief.
Several dozen Taliban fighters stopped the bus and drove it into the desert before abandoning the vehicle and forcing the group to walk for about one hour, Ahmadzai said.
Before arriving in Kabul, the group was in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, he said.
Ministry spokesperson Cho Hee-yong, however, did not release details on exactly how many were kidnapped or by whom.
"The government plans to exert every possible effort so that our kidnapped citizens can return safely as soon as possible," Cho told reporters in Seoul.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Friday that the kidnapped Koreans were members of the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital, Seoul.
Taliban were holding the two
An official at the church confirmed 20 of its members were in Afghanistan for volunteer work, adding that the church was currently unable to reach them.
"The Foreign Ministry has informed us this morning that the abductees could be our church members, so we are trying to confirm it," the official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to talk to the media.
Ahmadi said the Taliban were holding the two, and threatened to kill them if Germany did not pull out its troops serving in the Nato-led force.
"If German troops do not pull out of Afghanistan within the next 24 hours, we will kill these two Germans," Ahmadi said.
Germany's Foreign Ministry said it was "aware of the statement by the so-called spokesperson of the Taliban."
"At the same time, we have a conflicting statement from a Taliban spokesperson from yesterday. He indicated that the kidnapped Germans are not in the hands of the Taliban," said Martin Jaeger, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry.
"We will continue to carefully monitor developments of the situation," Jaeger said. "All necessary steps have been taken. The crisis team continues to work toward a swift release of the two kidnapped men."
On June 28, another German man was kidnapped in western Afghanistan, but he was released after a week.
Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
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