Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Afghan locals asked to leave areas where hostages held

KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Helicopters have dropped leaflets on Wednesday to ask local Afghans to leave the areas where 21 South Korean hostages are being held by the Taliban, a local official told Xinhua.

The official, who refused to be identified, said the leaflets have been distributed at around 12:00 p.m. (0730 GMT) in several districts in the Ghanzi province, where the hostages are being kept captive.

Another deadline for executing the hostages expired at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday without words of execution.

The leaflets dropped by choppers were found in Andar and Muqur districts neighboring Qarabagh district, where 23 South Koreans were kidnapped on July 19, witness Sayed Anwar from Andar said.

The leaflets asked locals to leave their houses in order to enable Afghan troops to smoothly launch operations against hostage holders, he added.

Taliban rebels killed two male South Korean hostages on July 25 and July 30 as they said the Afghan government was not serious in the talks.

Up to now, Afghan authorities have not agreed to release Taliban prisoners as the Taliban has demanded to exchange for the hostages.

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