Purported Taliban figure gives health warning on hostages
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A purported Taliban spokesman warned yesterday that some of the 22 South Korean hostages were in poor health, saying hours after the kidnappers' latest deadline passed that the captives were crying and worried about their future.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the kidnappers, said by phone that the group still insisted on exchanging Taliban prisoners for the captives, who could be killed if the demand is not met. Ahmadi spoke several hours after the passage of the most recent Taliban deadline but said the militia had not set a new one.
Some of the South Koreans were "not in good condition," Ahmadi said. "I don't know if the weather is not good for them, or our food. The women hostages are crying. The men and women are worried about their future."
One hostage, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was found dead of multiple gunshots on Wednesday in Qarabagh, the district where the hostages were being held.
Local tribal elders and clerics continued telephone negotiations with the captors, and were struggling with conflicting demands that included ransom as well as the release of Taliban prisoners.
"There are still a lot of problems among them," Qarabagh police chief Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi said. "One says, 'Let's exchange them for my relative,' the others say, 'Let's release the women,' and yet another wants a deal for money."
Ahmadi denied that.
"The Taliban are not asking for money. We just want to exchange our prisoners for Korean hostages. . . . When they release the Taliban, we will release the hostages," he said.
It remained unclear how many militants the Taliban want freed, or which ones.
In eastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, the provincial governor of Nuristan Province, Governor Tamim Nuristani, said militants had ambushed coalition troops yesterday, sparking a fight that included air strikes.
Two NATO soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in the clash, which took place in a mountainous area where American soldiers do most of the fighting.
In a battle that started Thursday night, as many as 50 suspected militants and 28 civilians were killed when international and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province and called in air strikes, Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan said.
A South Korean presidential envoy arrived for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other top officials on the hostage siege. Afghan officials said they remained upbeat about the chances of freeing the hostages without further bloodshed.
"We hope we will have a good result, but I don't know if they will be released today. I don't think they will be," said Shirin Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni Province, where the Koreans were taken.
Ahmadi said the hostages were being held in small groups in various locations and were being fed bread, yogurt, and rice.
The South Koreans, including 18 women, were kidnapped while traveling by bus on the Kabul- Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare. 