AFGHANISTAN:American and Afghan soldiers surrounded an area where 23 South Korean Christian aid workers were being held hostage by the Taliban in central Afghanistan last night.
The Taliban threatened to start executing the group unless an equal number of imprisoned fighters were freed and South Korea immediately withdrew its 200 soldiers from the US-led coalition.
The sense of urgency swelled after the body of a German aid worker who had been abducted in a separate incident was found in Wardak province near Kabul. The Taliban said it killed the man but the German government insisted he died of medical causes.
The South Koreans were snatched at gunpoint from a public bus travelling on the Kandahar-Kabul highway, one of Afghanistan's most dangerous routes, on Thursday. Officials said the workers were in their 20s and 30s.
A team of South Korean negotiators headed by a presidential envoy arrived in Kabul early yesterday. By late afternoon, they had established contact with the kidnappers. Meanwhile, American and Afghan security forces moved into the area in southern Ghazni province where the hostages are believed to be held. An Afghan defence ministry spokesman said they were "assessing the situation".
"I don't think there's an intention to try something big and brave. They just want to make sure that the hostages don't go anywhere," said a western security official in the region.
A Taliban deadline of 2.30pm BST for the demands to be met passed without news.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, also from South Korea, pledged to help resolve the crisis, the largest kidnapping of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The Korean government stressed it had previously decided to withdraw its 200 soldiers, who are mostly engaged in medical or humanitarian duties, by the end of this year.
Afghanistan retains an attraction for evangelical South Korean aid workers. Proselytising is illegal in Afghanistan and the Taliban have threatened to kill missionaries who secretly enter the country.
Last year, the government deported 1,200 South Koreans who flew to Kabul for a "peace parade" that never took place.
A security official described the South Koreans' bus trip through an area notorious for insurgent ambushes as "pure lunacy".
Last night, relatives in South Korea held a candlelight vigil where many fought back tears. "My only wish is for the Taliban to send our family members home safely," said Seo Jung-bae, father of two of the hostages. - (Guardian service)