‘Sick’ hostage shot and killed, claims Taliban

TALIBAN militants in Afghanistan yesterday claimed they shot and killed one South Korean hostage while a group of abductees was freed and taken to a US military base, officials said.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed a hostage had been shot and killed. A police official said militants told him the hostage was sick and couldn’t walk and was therefore shot.

Some of the 23 hostages, meanwhile, had been freed and were taken to a US base in Ghazni, said two western officials. The officials did not know how many had been freed. The South Korean news agency Yonhap said eight Koreans had been freed, citing unnamed Korean officials.