Three UN workers - including Armagh's Annetta Flanigan - who were kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released unharmed after nearly four weeks in captivity, officials said today.

AMERICAN and Afghan forces searching for three kidnapped UN workers, including Annetta Flanigan from Co Armagh, smashed their way into a number of Kabul houses yesterday.

Three UN workers kidnapped in Afghanistan are in the hands of criminals, not the Taliban-linked militants who have threatened to kill them, an Afghan official said today.

The purported leader of Taliban-linked militants holding three United Nations hostages, including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan, said his group was split over whether they should “get rid” of the captives.

Taliban-linked kidnappers of three UN election workers, including an Irish woman, claimed today that a deal could be close for their release.

Kidnappers threatening to kill a Northern Irish woman in Afghanistan were today awaiting a response to their demand for a prisoner exchange.

A militant group threatening to kill three United Nations hostages including a Northern Irish woman Annetta Flanigan said today it was talking to the Afghan government about its demand to free Taliban prisoners.

The midnight deadline (7.30pm Irish time) set by Afghan militants threatening to kill three UN hostages, including Northern Ireland's Annetta Flanigan, has passed.

Afghan militants threatening to kill three UN hostages, including Northern Ireland's Annetta Flanigan, pushed back the deadline for their deaths until midnight today – 7.30pm Irish time.

Militants threatening to kill three United Nations hostages including a woman from Northern Ireland said today that a noon deadline could be postponed for negotiations on demands that include the world body’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Afghan officials are optimistic that three UN hostages, including Northern ireland's Annetta Flanigan, will be freed unharmed, a government spokesman said.

THERE were fears last night Irish UN worker Annetta Flanigan and her fellow hostages may have been taken to separate locations as her captors seek to evade Afghan authorities.

Afghan militants threatening to kill three foreign hostages, including a woman from the North, today offered to negotiate with a UN envoy, but warned that any rescue attempt would end in bloodshed.

THE second hostage drama involving an Irish citizen took a turn for the worse yesterday when the kidnap gang responsible issued a three-day deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Kidnapped Northern Irish UN worker Annetta Flanigan was today featured in a video released by her captors who are demanding the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan.

A militant group claiming responsibility for kidnapping three foreign UN workers said today it will execute them unless Britain withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and two other governments stop supporting US policy.