The Taliban on Monday gave 23 Korean hostages another 24 hours to live to allow the South Korean government to open direct talks with the kidnappers, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday.
Spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said negotiations with the Afghan government were going nowhere and South Korea had until 1430 GMT on Tuesday to agree to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan. Unless it did so, the Taliban would start killing the captives.
It was the second time the Taliban had extended their deadline by 24 hours. Yousuf said a German hostage the Taliban had said they had killed was still alive along with four Afghans and they were still held hostage.
The same spokesman had previously said two German engineers and five Afghans seized by the Taliban had been killed. He said the group holding them had told him they were about to kill the hostages as government troops were closing in on them and then he had lost touch with the militants as they made their escape.
Neither Germany nor South Korea has shown any sign they might give in to Taliban demands and pull their troops out, nor has Kabul indicated it would release Taliban prisoners as also demanded by the Islamist guerrillas. "We will not give in to blackmail," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But the kidnappings risk weakening public support for military involvement among the 37 nations contributing to peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan.
Comments
Comments are closed.