Taliban claim abduction of 18 South Koreans, 2 German nationals

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Two German soldiers stand near a German Tornado in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif..

KABUL, July 20 (AFP): The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnap of 18 South Korean Christians and two German nationals, and said they would only free the Germans if Berlin withdraws troops from Afghanistan.
"The Taliban have kidnapped the South Korean nationals. There are 18 South Koreans-three men and 15 women," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.
"They are with the Taliban now and they are safe and sound. They are under investigation and once the investigation is over, the Taliban leading council will make a final decision about their fate," he said.
The South Koreans, who were abducted Thursday from the bus they were travelling in southern Afghanistan, belong to a church group engaged in "evangelistic" and aid activity in one of Afghanistan's most insurgency-hit regions. Officials in Seoul said they included some women.
"They were travelling in a bus. They were kidnapped by terrorists yesterday (Thursday)," Ghazni province governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP.
The governor expressed anger at the presence in his part of the country of such a large number of foreign nationals, who are often prime targets for Taliban militants and also criminals.
"They must have thought they are in Korea, not in war-torn Afghanistan. They did not contact us, police or the security forces for protection while travelling in this region," he said.
The Germans were kidnapped a day earlier as they drove on the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar in the insurgency-hit south.
Ahmadi said the Taliban would only free them if German troops pulled out of Afghanistan and all the Taliban prisoners in Afghan prisons were released.
Germany has some 3,000 troops stationed in the north of the country as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and is being pressed to send more.
Islamist militants in March issued Berlin with an ultimatum to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
In Seoul, Joseph Park, mission director of the Christian Council of Korea, had earlier said he feared the ultra-Islamic Taliban movement was behind the abduction of the Koreans.
"They are young Korean Christians who were engaged in short- term evangelistic activity and service for children in Kandahar. I am afraid they were captured by Taliban forces," Park said.
The 20-strong group, in their 20s and early 30s, belongs to the Saem-mul Community Church in Bundang on the outskirts of Seoul, said Oh Soon-In, a senior church administrator.
"The group left here on July 13, led by Rev. Bae Hyong-Kyu, and was supposed to return home on Monday next week," Oh said.
"We are in an emergency conference. We are quite concerned about their safety and whereabouts. We heard that they disappeared while travelling from Kabul to Kandahar."
Police confirmed they were not warned that Koreans were in the troubled area.
"They did not inform police about their presence in the area. We have found their empty bus and police have launched a major search operation in the area," provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai told AFP.
In February the Korean foreign ministry urged its citizens in Afghanistan to take extreme caution, citing an intelligence report that Taliban insurgents may try to kidnap South Korean travellers.
Around 1,200 South Korean Christians including hundreds of children arrived in devoutly Islamic Afghanistan last summer. The Kabul government ordered them out amid fears for their safety.
South Korea has the second largest number of Christians in East Asia after the Philippines.