Freed hostages arrive back in Seoul

Nineteen hostages released by the Taliban have arrived back in South Korea more than six weeks after they were captured in southern Afghanistan. The group of Christian aid workers looked tired and subdued as they stepped off a flight from the United Arab Emirates at Incheon airport early on Sunday. [More]

Comment:

Al Jazeera has reported that a ransom of $20 million has been paid, but this has been denied by the involved parties. In this case I am inclined to believe them, since the hostage situation has become something of a public relations fiasco for the Taliban and I doubt that such a high ransom would have been necessary.

South Korean hostage talks 'fail'

Taliban officials have said they are deciding what to do with 19 captured aid workers after talks with a South Korean delegation in southern Afghanistan ended unsuccessfully.

"The talks ended without any result and have failed as our main demand was not accepted," Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, said on Saturday. The announcement came as the Afghan interior ministry said a German woman had been abducted by unidentified armed men in Kabul.

The woman was taken from an area in the southwest of the capital where several aid groups have offices, Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the ministry, said. Twenty-three Christian volunteers from South Korea were taken from a bus as they travelled on the main road south from Kabul last month.

[More]


Comment:

The Taliban still hasn't decided what to do with them. Let us pray for their safe release.