Taliban Offer Women in S Koreans Hostage Swap
'Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk

KABUL (Afghanistan): The Taliban on Tuesday offered to swap women among their 21 South Korean hostages for female Afghan prisoners held on US military bases in Afghanistan.

The Islamist militia's latest proposal on the hostages, who have been held since mid-July, came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush vowed not to cut any deal to secure their release.

"If the Afghan government or the Americans agree to free any Afghan women they've jailed in (military bases in) Kandahar or Bagram, we'll free the same number of female hostages," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

"We're ready for such a deal. We don't know how many women are in Bagram and Kandahar," he said by phone from an unknown location.

The Afghan government said it was unaware of female prisoners with Taliban links, and a spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was not known if there were women held on those bases.

The South Koreans, 16 of them women, are believed to be held in southern Ghazni province, where they were kidnapped on July 19. Two male hostages have already been killed.●