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S. Korean Church Asked to Cover Hostage Rescue Costs Seoul has asked the South Korean church that sent 23 volunteers to Afghanistan to pay $65,000 for the rescue of their church members after they were kidnapped by the Taliban earlier this summer. Mon, Oct. 15, 2007 Posted: 08:56:32 AM EST Seoul has asked the South Korean church that sent 23 volunteers to Afghanistan to pay $65,000 for the rescue of their church members after they were kidnapped by the Taliban earlier this summer. The bill includes air fares, accommodation, recovery of bodies and other expenses involved in the rescue which...

Freed Christian Hostages Recount Ordeal By Eric Young Christian Post Reporter The 21 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban recounted their six weeks of captivity on Wednesday, revealing the harsh conditions and numerous beatings they endured before being freed nearly two weeks ago. Je Chang-hee, one of the 23 Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, center, shows his clothes during a press conference with other fellow ex-hostages at a hospital in Anyang, south of Seoul, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007. They said Wednesday that the insurgents beat and threatened them with bayonets to force them to convert...

The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home. “Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” ... “I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,”... “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to...

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Security forces killed a Taliban commander involved in the July kidnapping of 23 South Koreans, officials said Tuesday, as around 40 other rebels were reported killed in fresh fighting. ADVERTISEMENT The commander, Mullah Mateen, and 15 other insurgents died in an Afghan and US-led coalition operation that started late Monday in the central province of Ghazni and lasted several hours, they said. Mateen was a "key person" in the abduction of the group of Christian aid workers, two of whom were killed before the remainder were freed late last week, Ghazni police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said....

KABUL (Reuters) - A senior Taliban commander involved in the abduction of 23 South Korean missionaries was among dozens of insurgents killed in clashes in southern Afghanistan overnight, police said on Tuesday. Ali Shah Ahmadzai, police chief of Ghazni province, said Taliban commander Mullah Mateen was among 22 insurgents killed in a clash in the province's Qarabagh district. "He was involved in the kidnapping. We have reconnaissance colleagues on the ground," Ahmadzai told Reuters by telephone from Ghazni. However the U.S. military said it was not yet clear whether any hostage-takers were among "several" insurgents killed in Qarabagh. It said...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's relief at the release of 19 countrymen held hostage by the Taliban gave way Friday to anger at the victims themselves, members of a Christian church who are being criticized for ignoring warnings against travel to Afghanistan. Critics said the group's actions forced their government into negotiations with the Islamic militants that damaged the country's international reputation. A day after the last hostages were let go, some of the church workers apologized for the trouble caused by their captivity, and a few collapsed when told the militants had slain two male colleagues. One...

Hostage Group Returns to Korea to Relieved Relatives and Angry Critics Nineteen South Korean aid workers, held hostage by the Taliban for 42 days, returned home early Sunday morning to a mixture of sorrow, relief and anger. The members of The Saemmul Church missionary group ignored their government's warning not to travel to Afghanistan. Two of the male hostages were killed and there were reports that some of the women had been raped. While they were being held in Afghanistan, there was little open criticism of the missionaries, some of whom were killed. But now that they are safely home,...

Taleban militants vowed to abduct more foreigners after ending a six-week hostage drama by releasing the last seven of a group of kidnapped South Koreans under a deal with the Seoul government. We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,’ Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location. The seven hostages were handed over Thursday to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two separate exchanges close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, Red Cross officials and an...

South Korea paid the Taliban $950,000 -- or $50,000 a head -- to secure the release of 19 church workers abducted in southeastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials who took part in the negotiations told ABC News. The negotiations took on urgency, the Afghan officials said, after two female hostages who were released last month reported being repeatedly raped by their Taliban captors. The kidnappers also killed two of the male hostages, who were abducted six weeks ago riding by bus through southeastern Ghazni province. "We have reports the various Taliban commanders were fighting over the women hostages," said Mirajuddin Pathan, the...

S.Korea paid over $20 mln ransom-Taliban By Saeed Ali Achakzai Reuters - Saturday, September 1 11:34 am SPIN BOLDAK (Reuters) - South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than $20 million (9.9 million pounds) to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks. The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea. Seoul denies paying a ransom, but critics say negotiating with the Taliban sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings -- which the...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's presidential office denied a Taliban claim on Saturday that it had paid a ransom of more than $20 million for the release of 19 Christian missionaries held hostage in Afghanistan. "We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," said an official at the presidential Blue House.

QALA-E-KAZI, Afghanistan - Taliban militants released 12 captives in a series of handovers Wednesday, part of a deal with Seoul to free all 19 South Korean hostages that one Afghan minister warned would embolden the insurgents. The South Koreans, Christian aid workers who were kidnapped nearly six weeks ago, were turned over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at three locations in central Afghanistan. None of the 12 spoke to reporters. The remaining South Koreans will be freed over the next 48 hours, Taliban commanders have said. The first three women freed came to Qala-E-Kazi in a single...

OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian government has expressed regret over South Korea's decision to negotiate a hostage release with the Taliban. With a presence in Afghanistan that comprises 2,300 soldiers, as well as development officials, diplomats, and non-government workers, Canada reacted with caution to the news. In a carefully crafted response delivered late Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's office expressed disapproval of South Korean's handling of the crisis. "We do not negotiate with terrorists, for any reason," said a statement issued by Bernier's office. "Such negotiations, even if unsuccessful, only lead to further acts of terrorism." Bernier was shuffled...

Taliban release 8 South Korean hostages By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Taliban militants on Wednesday released eight of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly six-week hostage crisis. The hostages were released into the care of officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross at two separate locations in central Afghanistan close to the city of Ghazni, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene. Meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed more than 100 suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, officials said....

South Korea's presidential office said Tuesday that negotiators from the South Korean government and the Taliban reached an agreement to release all of the 19 South Korean hostages still held in Afghanistan. "The hostage release agreement was reached after direct talks between Korean and Taliban negotiators from 5:48 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. (Korea Standard Time). The South Korean government welcomes the agreement on the hostage release," presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said in a press conference.

Taliban renews death threats against hostages GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban militants who have been holding 19 South Koreans for more than a month renewed a threat Wednesday to kill them if their demands are not met. ADVERTISEMENT A purported rebel spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, said some of the captives were sick and they were also suffering from lack of proper food. "If the demands of the Taliban are not met the Korean hostages face death," Mujahed told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location. "Although we want this crisis to be solved through negotiations, it seems the US...

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two South Korean women freed by Afghanistan's Taliban began to make the long journey home, where their families spoke of their joy but worried over the fate of 19 other hostages. Pale, tearful and clutching Muslim headscarves, the women were handed over to international aid agency officials near the southern Afghan town of Ghazni late Monday and sped off to waiting South Korean representatives. The pair -- Kim Gin-A, 32, and Kim Kyung-Ja, 37 -- were at a safe place, a South Korean embassy spokesman told AFP under cover of anonymity. Details for their departure from...

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Two South Korean women kidnapped by the Taliban burst into tears Monday after being turned over to the Red Cross on a desert road where the body of one of the original 23 hostages was dumped. The women's release was the first breakthrough in a drama that began more than three weeks ago when a busload of Korean church volunteers was seized. A second male captive also was shot to death in late July, meaning 14 women and five men are still being held. The handover came after two days of face-to-face talks between the Taliban and...

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- Two of 21 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan have been released and moved to a safe area, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Monday. The released hostages are Kim Gina, 32, and Kim Kyung-ja, 37, ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong told reporters. The two, Cho said, "were released on Aug. 13 and have been handed over to our side." "We feel fortunate that at least some of the hostages have been released, but we again urge the kidnappers to immediately release all our citizens they hold hostage," the ministry spokesman said...

(AP) A Taliban spokesman reiterated Sunday that the militants soon will free two sick, female South Korean hostages but said the timing of the release hasn't yet been decided. The international Red Cross said it had no information about an upcoming release. A roadside bomb blast, meanwhile, killed three U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, bringing to five the number of international troops killed over the weekend, officials said. Also Sunday, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf addressed more than 600 Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders at a jirga, or tribal council, aimed at finding ways to stem Afghanistan's rising bloodshed. Musharraf...