Taliban, S Korean officials meet for negotiations

The meeting began this evening at the office of the Afghan Red Cross in Ghazni, near where the Koreans were kidnapped, said the Afghan official, who asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorised to release the information.

He said four members of the International Committee of the Red Cross were also taking part in the negotiations.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said two members of the Taliban’s top council — Mullah Bashir and Mullah Nasorullah — had travelled to Ghazni for the talks. He said the government in Kabul had given the Taliban a written safety guarantee for the two officials’ lives.

Afghan government officials did not immediately comment.

An aide to the local governor said he wasn’t available for comment, and an Interior Ministry spokesman in Kabul said he was not aware of a meeting taking place.

“As long as the talks continue, there will be no problem for the hostages,” a Taliban spokesman Ahmadi said.