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Taliban militants release 12 more South Korean hostages

QALA-E-KAZI, Afghanistan - Taliban militants released 12 captives in a series of handovers Wednesday, part of a deal with Seoul to free all 19 South Korean hostages that one Afghan minister warned would embolden the insurgents.

The South Koreans, Christian aid workers who were kidnapped nearly six weeks ago, were turned over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at three locations in central Afghanistan.

The remaining South Koreans will be freed over the next 48 hours, Taliban commanders said.

The first three women freed came to Qala-E-Kazi in a single car, their heads covered with red and green shawls.

Under the deal reached Tuesday, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge it made before the hostage crisis began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by year's end. Seoul also said it would prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working in the staunchly Muslim country.

The Taliban apparently backed down on demands for a prisoner exchange. But the militant group, which killed two South Korean hostages last month, could emerge with enhanced political legitimacy for negotiating successfully with a foreign government.

"One has to say that this release under these conditions will make our difficulties in Afghanistan even bigger," Commerce Minister Amin Farhang told German radio. "We fear that this decision could become a precedent."

A German engineer and four Afghan colleagues kidnapped July 18, the day before the South Koreans, are still being held.

Afghanistan has seen a rash of kidnappings of foreigners over the past year.

The Italian and Afghan governments were heavily criticized in March for freeing five Taliban prisoners to win the release of an Italian journalist.

The Taliban and South Korea have said money played no part in Tuesday's deal.

Karzai complaint: Two days after a report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime showed a boom in opium production, President Hamid Karzai criticized leading Western nations on Wednesday for what he said was their failure to cooperate in tackling soaring opium production in Afghanistan.

[Last modified August 30, 2007, 01:53:33]