Afghan and international forces have launched an operation to rescue a group of South Koreans taken hostage by Taliban insurgents south of the capital Kabul, the Afghan Ministry of Defense says. "Afghan forces and international troops have launched a joint operation for the freedom of the Korean hostages," the Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement Sunday. "The result of the operation will be announced at a later date."A South Korean delegation arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday to try to secure the release of the hostages.
Their mission has an added sense of urgency after a Taliban spokesman said the militants had killed two German hostages on Saturday after Berlin refused to yield to demands for it to pull its troops out Afghanistan.
The spokesman said insurgents would start killing the Korean hostages if South Korea did not agree to pull its 200 military engineers and medics from Afghanistan by 1430 GMT on Sunday and the Afghan government did not release all Taliban prisoners.
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