UN workers ‘abandoned’ by Afghan captors

THREE UN workers, including Irish woman Annetta Flanigan, held hostage in Afghanistan for nearly four weeks were “abandoned” by their captors in Kabul, officials said yesterday.

Afghan officials remained vague about the identity of the kidnappers as investigations continued. They said armed raids by US and Afghan forces had increased pressure on the captors, and no deals were done to win the release of Ms Flanigan from Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo. After doctors at a NATO base in Kabul gave them the all-clear, the trio took time to phone loved ones and wind down after their ordeal, a UN spokesman said.

“They are happy and relieved to see people from their own environment, the people they work with,” spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said yesterday.