Taliban Threaten to Kill 18 Korean Hostages

[*Arabman]

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 — Taliban gunmen boarded a bus and abducted 18 South Koreans who were apparently volunteers for a Christian church group, and a spokesman for the insurgents told reporters Friday that the fates of those kidnapped would be decided after the prisoners have been questioned.

“They have got until tomorrow at noon to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, or otherwise we will kill the 18 Koreans,” Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location. “Right now, they are safe and sound.”

South Korea has at least 210 troops serving in Afghanistan.

Late Friday, the Afghan Army and police were searching for the captives, 15 women and three men. They had been traveling along the nation’s main north-south highway when their bus was stopped Thursday in the Qarabagh District of Ghazni Province, about 110 miles south of Kabul, said Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the province’s police chief. The Koreans were then taken into the mountains, where their bus was jettisoned.

The bus driver and several Afghan prisoners were released, the police chief said, adding that the driver put the number of Korean captives at 23 rather than 18.

“Our troops have totally blocked the area where we think these people are being held,” Mr. Ahmadzai said. “But we received a threat from the Taliban saying that if we continue our operations, the hostages will be killed.”

The police chief had a different understanding of the insurgents’ demands, saying the Taliban wanted the release of all their prisoners being held in Ghazni jails.

Mr. Ahmadzai said the South Koreans had played into the hands of the Taliban. “According to the bus driver, the Koreans were going from Kabul to Kandahar and they told him not to inform the police because we might bother them about passports and identification papers,” he said. “This was a mistake on their part, not alerting security officials.”

Merajuddin Pattan, the provincial governor, also criticized the Koreans for traveling unescorted in an area frequently singled out by the Taliban and highway robbers. “It was as if they thought they were traveling in Korea,” he said.

In Seoul, Cho Hee-yong, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry, said the Taliban’s captives were possibly members of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, a city just south of the capital.

Oh Soo-in, an official from that church, confirmed that several members of the congregation — all in their 20s and 30s — had gone to Afghanistan hoping to do volunteer work in the southern city of Kandahar.

“The government contacted us about 20 of our church members who are traveling in Afghanistan,” Mr. Oh said. “All our church leaders are holding an emergency meeting, waiting for the final word from the government on what really happened to our youth members.”

With an estimated 12,000 Christian volunteers abroad, South Korea is one of the world’s largest sources of missionary activities. But their presence is not always welcome, especially in Muslim countries.

Last August, more than 1,000 South Koreans came to Kabul to attend a “peace march.” But most were quickly ordered to leave when Afghans accused them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, and the government concluded that their presence was a security threat.

So far, the Taliban have made no reference to the religion of their captives. The kidnappings themselves are consistent with the terrorism tactics recently favored by the insurgents, including beheadings, roadside bombs and suicide attacks. The strategy has discouraged foreigners from participating in much-needed reconstruction projects across the country.

Two German engineers and six Afghans were abducted Wednesday about 60 miles southwest of Kabul in Wardak Province. They are still missing.

There have been conflicting claims from Taliban spokesmen about whether the insurgents are holding the Germans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/world ... ?ref=world

[*Arabman]

Highlight from the article:

"Last August, more than 1,000 South Koreans came to Kabul to attend a “peace march.” But most were quickly ordered to leave when Afghans accused them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, and the government concluded that their presence was a security threat."

============================================================

I remember a similar incidence happened in Iraq few years ago, where Korean evangelists trying to convert Muslims to Christianity were captured by insurgents. I think the Taliban executing those Korean evangelists could be justified.

[FAH1223]

its sad though, these Koreans were converted by their American masters

[paidmonk]

The Taliban are xoolo. Afghanistan in general is light years behind Somalia in the realm of traditions.

I was listening to this radio program around November/December 2006. They were talking about the Islamic Courts militia and the Taliban. How both groups were generally the same in many ways; both were based around madrassas, both had large youth presence, etc.

One thing came to the minds of these American analysts; the Islamic Courts in Somalia were educated. Just overall, more educated, than the Taliban.

So unless the Taliban open their minds, they will stay in the dark and will continue carrying out current operations. Never under the original Somali Islamic groups did these sort of things happen, only under madmen like Afghanis and Arabs, middle eastern trash, really.

[*Arabman]

[Never under the original Somali Islamic groups did these sort of things happen, only under madmen like Afghanis and Arabs, middle eastern trash, really.]

Quite the contrary; if the ICU captures evangelists trying to convert Somalis to Christianity, there's no doubt execution is the only recourse. You mentioned "these sort of things"; you're mistaken, as the killing of sister Leonella is one of "these sort of things." Evangelists have no business in Muslim countries, as their mission is to convert Muslims to Christianity. Unless they reach an accord with Islamists to let them convert Muslims to Christianity, they are fair game.

[paidmonk]

Wrong, they are not fair game.

No one is sure who killed the nun in Xamar, most likely just neutral locals, and that was pretty much the only murder I've heard under the Islamic Courts in Somalia.

The Taliban are the right fix for Afghanistan at this point, but they are barbaric. Its impossible to live under them, absolutely impossible.

[*Arabman]

[The Taliban are the right fix for Afghanistan at this point, but they are barbaric. Its impossible to live under them, absolutely impossible.]

The Taliban are humane, compassionate, fair, based on haqq and care a lot about the Ummah. It's the Western media and propaganda that indicted and demonized them, but that's not news, since every Islamist individual, movement or organization is indicted and demonized as terrorist, radical, barbaric, etc. It suffices that most Afghans long for the return of the Taliban, as do most Somalis long for the return of the ICU.

[paidmonk]

The Taliban has some unlivable requirements. I'm speaking for myself. For one second will I not lie to myself. The Taliban is too extreme to live under.

[adanboy]

210 troops out of the afghanistan and save 18 korean lives..its a fair deal

[*Arabman]

Taliban Said to Extend Hostage Deadline

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 22 — The Taliban, who have threatened to kill 23 South Korean hostages unless an equal number of their own fighters are released, extended on Sunday the deadline of their ultimatum by 24 hours, according to a man identifying himself as a spokesman for the insurgent group.

“A delegation from Korea arrived in Afghanistan today, and we hope to talk to them,” said the spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, reached via telephone from an unknown location. “We are optimistic that the Afghan government can be convinced to release our prisoners.”

Talks to resolve the crisis have already begun between the Taliban and tribal elders, according to Gen. Zaher Azimi,a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense. “We’re hoping this can be solved peacefully,” he said.

In the meantime, forces from the Afghan National Army and the police have surrounded areas where they believed the hostages were being held. “So far, we are only on standby,” the general said. “We’re waiting on further orders.”

The South Koreans are members of a Protestant church group who were on a 10-day relief mission; most are women in their 20s and 30s, including nurses and teachers. They were taken prisoner on Thursday on a main highway in Ghazni Province as their bus was traveling from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, to Kandahar, the main city in the south.

The kidnappings occurred just a day after two German engineers and five Afghan colleagues were taken hostage on a highway just southwest of Kabul.

On Saturday, Mr. Ahmadi, one of many men who claim to be Taliban spokesmen, said the Germans and the Afghans had been fatally shot after the German government missed a deadline to begin talks about removing its 3,000 combat troops from Afghanistan.

But the Afghan Foreign Ministry denied that the Germans had been killed, insisting that one of them had died of a heart attack while in captivity and that the other remained alive.

Early Sunday, the body of one of the Germans was found by villagers in Wardak Province, said Abdul Wadood Pashtunzar, a spokesman for the provincial governor. “An eyewitness told me that the body was full of blood and shot in the back,” he said. “We are guessing that the man died of a heart attack and was shot later.”

Mr. Ahmadi, speaking for the Taliban, said, “We would return all the dead bodies if only the Afghan government requests it.”

The South Korean delegation that Mr. Ahmadi said he hoped to meet with is a crisis team, headed by the vice foreign minister, Cho Jung-pyo. The team arrived in Kabul on Sunday to oversee efforts to secure the hostages’ freedom.

“We are in contact with the militant group through a few channels,” said Cho Hee-yong, a spokesman for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. “We expect the situation to become more concrete soon.”

A senior South Korean official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said government officials and Taliban guerrillas were “feeling out each other’s positions.”

The Afghan government released five Taliban prisoners in March in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, calling it “a one-time deal” after complaints that the arrangement would encourage the taking of other hostages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/world ... l?ref=asia