Taliban release remaining hostages

JANDA, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants released the last seven South Korean hostages Thursday under a deal with the government in Seoul, ending a six-week drama that the insurgents claimed as a “great victory for our holy warriors.”

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi vowed to abduct more foreigners, reinforcing fears that South Korea’s decision to negotiate directly with the militants would embolden them.

“We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,” he told the Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location.

The seven hostages were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two separate exchanges close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, Red Cross officials and an Associated Press reporter said. The freed hostages did not speak to reporters.

The final three released — two women and a man — were handed over by armed men on a main road in Janda district after apparently walking through the desert for some distance. Covered in dust, they were quickly bundled into a Red Cross vehicle and driven away.

The seven were part of a group of 23 church volunteers who were abducted July 19 as they traveled by bus along a dangerous road in southern Afghanistan. The militants killed two men soon after taking them, and released two women earlier this month in what they termed a “goodwill” gesture. On Wednesday, the Taliban released the 12 other hostages.

The men accompanying the last hostages freed gave an unsigned note to journalists accusing the South Koreans of coming to Afghanistan on a mission to convert the staunchly Islamic country to Christianity.

“They came to our nation to change our faith,” the handwritten note read. “The Afghan people have given their lives for their faith. This is the reason we arrested them.”

The South Korean government and relatives of the hostages — all of whom belonged to a Presbyterian church close to Seoul — have insisted they were not engaged in missionary activities, but were doing aid work such as helping in hospitals.

The identity of the armed men was not clear. The Taliban said earlier they had handed the three hostages to tribal elders who would transfer them to the Red Cross.