Kabul - Afghan police have Monday arrested four of the
suspected kidnappers of the German woman Christina M, freed
overnight, according to the Interior Ministry in Kabul.
The four suspects, including the mastermind, were captured during
the sting operation to free the hostage, according to interior
ministry spokesman, Semarai Bashary.
Bashary told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Christina M was
freed in a joint operation by the ministry and the Afghan secret
service.
The captors had denied being part of the Taliban and had demanded
the release of 'innocent prisoners' in a videotape broadcast early
Sunday by the private Tolo news channel.
The 31-year-old woman was abducted Saturday by four armed men as
she was leaving a restaurant in western Kabul in the presence of her
husband.
A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed
the report of the abductee's release.
'She is in the safe custody of the German embassy in Kabul,' said
the spokeswoman, who declined to comment on the health of Christina
M, who is believed to be pregnant.
After the abduction, Kabul police cordoned off the district where
the woman was snatched, conducted house-to-house searches and threw
up roadblocks on major roads out of the city to prevent her from
being taken out of the capital. One taxi driver was reported slain by
mistaken gunfire.
Bashary said one of the suspects was also involved in the murder
of two German journalists last year. The two Deutsche Welle reporters
were shot in October while they were camping in northern Afghanistan.
The ministry spokesman said they have detained the head of the
network responsible for the act, but did not name the group.
Afghanistan has seen a rash of kidnappings of foreigners since the
abduction of an Italian journalist in March led to the release of
five Taliban prisoners.
A German man was kidnapped on July 18 in the central province of
Maidan Wardak. Negotiations continue for the release of the engineer
and 19 South Korean Christian aid workers who were abducted in July.
Two ill hostages were killed earlier by the Taliban, and two South
Korean women were released last week.
Christina M is a staffer for Ora International, a Christian aid
organization that has operated in Afghanistan since 1991.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin extended
gratitude to the Afghan authorities with whom his government had
worked 'closely, faithfully and successfully' to safely gain the
German woman's freedom.
Steinmeier emphasized that the German Foreign Ministry is
continuing to seek the release of the German construction engineer
abducted last month, identified as Rudolf B.
The 62-year-old hostage was able to speak by telephone Sunday with
a reporter in Kabul from German broadcaster ARD, reporting that his
health was deteriorating. The abductee asked why a ransom had not
been paid for his quick release and called for the German embassy in
Kabul to act more strongly to gain his freedom.
The circumstanced under which Rudolf B was able to make the
telephone call were not known.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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