Profits of kidnapping extortion spur Taliban to more

Scotsman:

TALIBAN militants have vowed to abduct more foreigners after ending a six-week hostage drama by releasing the last seven of a group of kidnapped South Koreans under a deal with the Seoul government.

"We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said.

His comments reinforced fears that South Korea's decision to negotiate directly with the militants would embolden them.

The seven hostages were handed over in stages yesterday to the International Committee of the Red Cross close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni.

The final three released - two women and a man - were handed over by armed men on a main road in Janda district after apparently walking through the desert for some distance.

Covered in dust, they were quickly bundled into a Red Cross vehicle and driven away.

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As long as it is profitable they will keep doing it. The Taliban have become a pathetic lot of crooks. they can't even mount a proper ambush without being destroyed, so they have turned to kidnapping non combatants. The South Koreans have not wrapped themselves in glory with this episode either. At least the Afghan government learned its lesson and did not release anymore prisoners. Now they need to work on capturing or killing more Taliban to stop this nonsense.