Kabul - The Taliban executed seven men they had abducted in
Afghanistan's south-eastern region, while 10 Taliban fighters and
three civilians were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan,
officials said Sunday.
A Taliban spokesman claimed that their forces had killed three
Afghan policemen, two National Army soldiers and two truck drivers
working for a foreign company on Sunday in the country's south-
eastern province of Ghazni, police and Taliban officials said.
The seven hostages, who had been kidnapped by the group on
December 17 and 18 on the notorious Kabul-Kandahar highway were
apparently shot dead while attempting to escape, Taliban spokesman
Zabyullah Mujahed told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone from an
undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Provincial Police Chief of Ghazni, Mohammad
Zaman, confirmed that some of the bodies had been recovered, and
police were looking for remaining hostages.
The Taliban have carried out several kidnappings this year, many
of them on the highway linking the capital with the troubled southern
province of Kandahar, and have in some cases succeeded in securing
the release of several of their jailed comrades in exchange for
hostages.
In July, the Taliban kidnapped 23 South Korean Christian
volunteers on the same Kabul-Kandahar highway but released the
hostages after killing two of the group members.
The whereabouts of a German citizen, kidnapped a week ago in
Western Herat province are still unknown, although the Taliban have
not claimed responsibility and local authorities have expressed doubt
about the group's involvement.
Harald Kleber, 42, was abducted by armed gunmen Sunday in
circumstances that remain unclear. Police have been conducting an
intense search for the German, who changed his name to Abdul Rahman
after converting to Islam.
Police in the province have arrested four family members of the
abducted man's wife, suspecting that a family dispute was behind his
kidnapping.
Elsewhere, three civilians including a woman and two men were
killed and two others were wounded on Sunday when their vehicle was
struck by a roadside mine in Khost province, near the Pakistani
border, Mohammad Ayoub Khan, the provincial police chief, said.
He said the mine had been newly planted in the area, which is
often patrolled by Afghan and ISAF troops in the province.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Defence Ministry claimed that their forces
backed by international troops had killed ten Taliban militants in
the Mianishin district of Kandahar province on Friday.
Four Afghan army soldiers were also wounded during the firefight,
the Ministry said in a statement.
Around 6,300 people - mostly Taliban militants - have been killed
in militancy this year, making it the bloodiest period since the
ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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