Taliban threaten SKorean hostages as deadline passes

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070801...kcMHEH69LuOrgF


Taliban threaten SKorean hostages as deadline passes by Mohammad Yaqob


Afghanistan's Taliban threatened to kill more of its 21 South Korean hostages after a Wednesday deadline expired, as helicopters dropped leaflets asking people to leave the area where they are held.

By evening, hours after the noon (0730 GMT) deadline, there appeared to have been little movement, with negotiators unable to provide new information and the Taliban saying there had been no developments.

The extremist group repeated however that it was ready to kill more members of the aid mission seized in the southern province of Ghazni two weeks ago. Two have already been shot dead -- a 42-year-old pastor and a 29-year-old.

"After the deadline passed, one or more hostages could be killed any time," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP earlier.

Military choppers dropped leaflets in the province, including the Qarabagh district where the South Koreans were captured, asking residents to leave ahead of a planned operation but officials denied this would be a bid to free the captives.

The operation was a routine exercise due in the coming weeks, the defence ministry said, adding it "has no links to the South Korean hostages issue."

A South Korean embassy official told AFP: "We have no information about any operation. Before launching any operation, we must be informed."

With tensions mounting and Qarabagh said to have been surrounded by soldiers for days, Ahmadi said Taliban fighters were "ready to answer with force and if there's any pressure on us, the lives of the hostages will be in danger."

He said earlier there had been no progress in the negotiations in which the rebels have demanded that at least eight Taliban prisoners be freed from Afghan jails.

Afghan authorities have rejected the demand after being condemned internationally for a similar deal in March.

One of the main negotiators, parliamentarian Mahmood Gailani, said tribal elders fronting the talks had asked for 48 more hours. "We are waiting for the answer," he said.

Negotiators also want the militants to unconditionally free 16 women in the group, two of whom a Taliban spokesman Tuesday described as gravely ill, before considering other possible demands.

A top US official, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, and Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile joined international calls for the release of the Christians.

Adding to concern about their chances, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Afghan court officials were found Wednesday near where the bloodied corpse of one of the foreigners was dumped late Tuesday.

"We killed them because they worked for the government," Ahmadi said.

There were also fresh fears for a German engineer held since July 18, a day before the South Koreans were captured, after Al-Jazeera television broadcast late Tuesday a video that it said showed him pleading for his life.

The footage, reported to be days old, was the first to show the engineer, said to be 62 years old.

The hardline Taliban, backed by the Al-Qaeda network, has intensified an insurgency launched since being driven from government in 2001.

There are daily attacks in the war-ravaged country, undermining internationally backed efforts for reconstruction.

In new incidents a dozen Taliban and a policeman were killed in Kandahar province late Tuesday, police said.

Four rebels were also shot dead in Ghazni province and a soldier from the 35,000-strong NATO-led force here to assist the Afghan government was killed in fighting in the northeast, security officials said.