Taliban claims to have murdered German hostages

A purported Taliban spokesman said the hard-line militia today shot and killed two German hostages because Germany’s government did not announce that its troops would leave Afghanistan.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the Germans were shot to death. They had been kidnapped on Thursday, along with five Afghan colleagues, in the southern province of Wardak while working on a dam project.

“The German and Afghan governments didn’t meet our conditions, they didn’t pull out their troops,” Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi offered no proof for the claim of the killings. He said the Taliban would give further information about the two bodies later.