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Afghanistan

German hostage released in exchange for six Talibs

2007-10-10

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A German engineer and four Afghans taken hostage in July were freed Wednesday in exchange for six Taliban fighters, an Afghan official said. Rudolf Blechschmidt and the four Afghans were handed over by local elders to officials from Afghanistan's intelligence service in the Jaghato district of Wardak province, said the district chief, Mohammad Nahim. Six detained Taliban militants had been freed in the swap, he said. The hostage-taker's father was one of the six springees, and the Afghan gov't now sez they were "criminals", not Taliban. In Germany, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that Blechschmidt had been freed, and the former captive told Spiegel magazine on his release that he was "doing well." "I'm just a little tired," he told the magazine in a short telephone interview posted on its Web site. Blechschmidt had also talked with the German ambassador by telephone and confirmed he was safely in the custody of Afghan security forces, Steinmeier said in a statement. "We are all pleased and relieved," Steinmeier said.

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Afghanistan

German hostage held in Afghanistan pleads for help on new videotape

2007-10-09

A German engineer held by Taliban insurgents since July said he lives with the militants "like family" but pleaded with Germany and Afghanistan to help facilitate his release, according to a new videotape Monday. Blechschmidt says he had been recently released into the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross but was taken back into Taliban custody. "Now we plea to German government and Afghan government, give us some help and make a deal with the Taliban to release us before the winter time starting." A dimly lit video of Rudolf Blechschmidt shows the German in what appears to be a simple mud-brick Afghan home. Blechschmidt says he had been recently released into the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross but was taken back into Taliban custody. "And this time we (were) with the Red Cross on the way to Kabul, but the Taliban stop us and bring us back to the mountains," Blechschmidt says on the tape obtained by AP Television News. "Now we plea to German government and Afghan government, give us some help and make a deal with the Taliban to release us before the winter time starting." Four employees with the International Committee of the Red Cross were kidnapped September 27 while trying to facilitate the German's release. The four, taken hostage by the Taliban, were released in good health two days later.

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Afghanistan

13 killed in Afghanistan

2007-08-24

Insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan left 13 people dead, 10 of them private security guards escorting a NATO supply convoy, officials said on Thursday. Meanwhile, a German engineer held hostage by the Taliban for more than a month appeared on a private Afghan television, coughing and holding his chest while appealing for help. “I am a prisoner of the Taliban,” said the man, who identified himself as Rudolf Blechschmidt. “We live in the mountains, very high in a very bad condition, please help us.” Tolo TV did not say how it obtained the video, and there was no indication of when it was shot. The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said they were checking its contents. The ambush on the NATO-supply convoy took place in southern Zabul province. A large group of Taliban attacked the trucks, killing at least 10 private security guards and destroying three vehicles, said Mohammad Salim, an official with the security company, who witnessed the attack. In Helmand province, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein said insurgents triggered a remote-controlled bomb, hitting his convoy. He said he was unhurt in the attack but that three civilians were killed and 13 wounded. On Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed two Canadian troops and an Afghan interpreter travelling in an armoured vehicle in Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold. A Canadian radio reporter was also injured in the attack. The casualties - from Quebec province’s Royal 22nd Regiment - bring to 69 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers in the country, mainly operating in Kandahar province. Separately, the Afghan intelligence said that it had detained a teenage militant who detonated a bomb, which killed three German nationals in the capital. Two German police officers and a foreign ministry employee were killed when the remote control device blew up their vehicle on a road in the outskirts of Kabul a week ago.

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