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Deadline extended for South Korean hostages

A purported Taliban spokesman said Sunday that the hard-line militia was extending by 24 hours the deadline for the Afghan government to trade captured militants for 23 South Korean hostages.
A group of South Koreans pose before leaving for Afghanistan on July 13 at Incheon International Airport west of Seoul, South Korea. They were allegedly kidnapped by the same group that claimed responsibility for a German hostage's death.
A group of South Koreans pose before leaving for Afghanistan on July 13 at Incheon International Airport west of Seoul, South Korea. They were allegedly kidnapped by the same group that claimed responsibility for a German hostage's death.Sammul Church via Yonhap - AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

A purported Taliban spokesman said Sunday that the hard-line militia was extending by 24 hours the deadline for the Afghan government to trade captured militants for 23 South Korean hostages.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the militants were giving the Afghan and South Korean governments until 10:30 a.m. ET Monday to respond to their demand that 23 Taliban prisoners be freed in exchange for the Koreans.

Ahmadi said Taliban commanders wanted to give the South Korean government an extra day to persuade the Afghan government to release the Taliban prisoners.

Neither the Afghan nor Korean governments have commented on the purported Taliban offer. A delegation of eight Korean officials arrived in the capital of Kabul on Sunday and met with President Hamid Karzai to discuss the crisis.

Meanwhile, a police chief in Ghazni province said Afghan officials and elders had met with the kidnappers Sunday to try to resolve the crisis. U.S. and Afghan troops also surrounded the area in southern Ghazni province where the Koreans were thought to be being held in preparation for a possible rescue operation.

“As soon as we receive the order, we will start the operation,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

But a U.S. spokesman said that appeared unlikely for the moment. “We will only launch rescue operations or military action at the request of the Afghan and Korean governments,” said Lt. Col. David Accetta. “We do not want to jeopardize the lives of the Korean civilians.”

Body of German hostage found
Earlier Sunday, villagers found the body of a German aid worker who had been kidnapped in neighboring Wardak province on Wednesday along with another German and five Afghans, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hewas Mazlum.

Ahmadi said Saturday that militants shot and killed the Germans because Berlin hadn’t pledged to pull its 3,000 troops out of Afghanistan. But Afghan and German officials said intelligence indicated that one died of a heart attack and the other was still alive.

Mazlum said he did not immediately know the cause of death of the German whose body was recovered.

The militants kidnapped the Koreans on Thursday while they were riding on a bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, where they live and work, some at medical facilities. It was the largest single abduction of foreigners since the 2001 fall of the hard-line Taliban regime.

Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi, the police chief of Ghazni province’s Qarabagh district, where the Koreans were kidnapped, said a delegation of Afghan officials and elders traveled to the region to speak with the kidnappers but hadn’t yet returned.

A senior South Korean official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue that officials would negotiate with the Taliban through intermediaries.

The 23 South Koreans, which include 18 women, work at an aid organization in Kandahar, said Sidney Serena, a political affairs officer at the South Korean Embassy in Kabul.

South Korea holds out hope
Relatives back in South Korea pressed their government to win the captives’ safe release.

“Sister, I promise that I’ll be good and take care of you. So please come back safely,” Lee Jung-hoon, younger brother of hostage Lee Jung-ran, told reporters as he held back tears.

People holding candles shout slogans during candle light vigil in central Seoul
People holding candles shout slogans during a candle light vigil demanding withdrawal of South Korean troops from Afghanistan and return of kidnapped South Koreans, in central Seoul July 21, 2007. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Saturday called for the release of 23 countrymen held hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, saying they were medical volunteers. The placards read \"Withdrawal of troops immediately is the only way to save hostages\". REUTERS/Han Jae-Ho (SOUTH KOREA)Han Jae-ho / X02377

“I would not really have any other wish ... if the Taliban send our family members home safely,” said Seo Jung-bae, father of two of the hostages, who gathered with relatives at a church in Bundang just south of Seoul to watch television updates on the situation.

Some 300 peace activists, students and lawmakers held a candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul, meanwhile, to renew their call on the government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The troop withdrawal had been the initial demand of the kidnappers’ purported spokesman.

South Korea has about 200 troops serving with the 8,000-strong U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, largely working on humanitarian projects.

The South Korean government informed the National Assembly late last year that it would terminate its military mission in Afghanistan before the end of this year.

Earlier Sunday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said it has begun preparations to pull its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year as previously scheduled, stressing the process had begun well before the purported Taliban demand for their withdrawal.