Afghanistan News

LONDON (AFP) – Britain’s battle against the drugs trade in southern Afghanistan has been a total failure, the troubled country’s vice-president said Sunday.The drugs eradication policy is simply too soft and it is time to get tough, Ahmad Zia Massoud wrote in the British weekly newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. Poppy …

SEOUL (AFP) – Nineteen South Korean former hostages who spent six weeks under threat of death from Afghanistan’s Taliban arrived home Sunday, saying they felt as if they had died and then got their lives back.The former captives had tearful reunions with their families at a hospital outside Seoul before …

INCHEON, South Korea – Nineteen South Koreans freed by Taliban insurgents after six weeks in captivity returned home to tearful embraces from loved ones Sunday, expressing sorrow for two in their group who were killed in Afghanistan and apologizing to the nation.The former hostages, let go in stages last week …

KABUL (AFP) – Ground fighting and air strikes killed almost two dozen insurgents near a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan that has seen days of heavy fighting, the US-led counter terrorism force said Saturday.Attack aircraft were called in after insurgents ambushed patrolling Afghan police and international troops in the southern …

SEOUL, South Korea – 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 …

KABUL (Reuters) – Nineteen newly-freed South Korean hostages flew out of the Afghan capital on Friday after a six-week kidnap drama following a deal with Taliban insurgents critics fear could spur more abductions.The South Korean Christian volunteers, part of a group of 23 missionaries kidnapped in southeast Afghanistan in mid-July, …

KABUL, Afghanistan – Newly freed South Korean church workers apologized to their government Friday for causing trouble in Afghanistan by being kidnapped by the Taliban for six weeks.Some fell to the ground in shock when they were told that two members of their group had been killed by their captors, …

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea began to count the diplomatic and human cost Thursday of a six-week hostage ordeal as it awaited the release of the last seven aid workers kidnapped by Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents.The church that sent the Christian volunteers on a bus trip across war-torn southern Afghanistan said …

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) – The Taliban freed 12 of their 19 South Korean captives on Wednesday as the wrenching six-week hostage crisis in Afghanistan neared resolution.The Islamic extremist movement handed over 10 women and two men to tribal elders in three separate releases several hours apart outside the central town …

GHAZNI, Afghanistan – Taliban militants agreed Tuesday to release 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage for six weeks after Seoul reaffirmed a pledge to withdraw its troops by year’s end and prevent Christian missionaries from working in Afghanistan.The militants apparently backed away from demands for a prisoner exchange. But …