Afghan, foreign troops bid to rescue Koreans

Kabul, July 22: Afghan and international forces have launched an operation to rescue 23 South Koreans taken hostage by Taliban insurgents south of the capital Kabul, the Afghan Ministry of Defence said today.

The operation came as a South Korean government delegation arrived in Kabul to secure the release of countrymen who were seized in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province on Thursday.

''Afghan forces and international troops have launched a joint operation for the freedom of the Korean hostages,'' the Afghan Ministry of Defence said in a statement. ''The result of the operation will be announced at a later date.'' Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the group was holding the captives at different locations and any attempt to free them through force would put the Koreans' lives at risk.

He said insurgents would start killing the hostages if South Korea did not agree to withdraw its 200 military engineers and medics from Afghanistan by 2000 ist today and the Afghan government did not release all Taliban prisoners.

The South Korean government has said it will withdraw its troops at the end of this year as planned.

URGENT MISSION

The South Korean delegation of eight officials included a deputy foreign minister, a special advisor to the president and Foreign Ministry diplomats, a South Korean embassy official said.

Their mission was given an added sense of urgency after Taliban spokesman Yousuf said the militants had killed two German hostages yesterday following Berlin's refusal to yield to demands for it to pull its troops out Afghanistan.

The team is expected to hold talks with Afghan authorities and embassy officials had travelled to Ghazni yesterday.

The 23 Koreans belong to the ''Saemmul Church'' in Bundang, a city on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Most of them are in their 20s and 30s and include nurses and English teachers. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a televised speech yesterday the Koreans were providing only free medical or educational services with no missionary intentions.

The Koreans are the biggest group of foreigners kidnapped so far in the Taliban campaign to oust the Western-backed government and force out foreign troops.

German authorities have cast doubt on the authenticity of the Taliban spokesman and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said analysis suggested one of the German hostages was alive while the other had died of ''stress and strain''.

The area south of Kabul where the Germans and Koreans were seized this week has seen a marked escalation of violence in the last month as Taliban militants have moved in from the south.

Residents say government troops only hold the major towns and much of the countryside is beyond their control.

REUTERS>