A New Hostage Situation?
August 18, 2007
A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the ministry was pursuing "leads about a possible kidnapping of a German citizen" but could not confirm that the incident took place.
"We are in close contact with Afghan authorities and we're working on clarifying the facts and circumstances," she said.
The Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed the kidnapping, while Afghan police told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the vehicle in which the woman was taken away was last seen driving westwards. Roadblocks had been set up and police were calling in a helicopter for their search.
Criminal gangs?
According to Afghan security forces sources, the woman was abducted by four armed men while having lunch in BBQ Tonight Cafe, a local restaurant in western part of Kabul city on Saturday.
The police in the area was alerted of the abduction and opened fire at a speeding vehicle, a police official who is in charge of the area told dpa, adding that the bullet missed the car and instead hit a taxi and killed its driver.
A secret service officer, who requested anonymity, told dpa that "criminal" gangs were suspected in the kidnapping.
The kidnappers and their driver drove off with the woman in a blue Toyota Corolla, a very common make of car in Afghanistan, the sources said.
A German man who had been dining with the woman at the time of the abduction, was briefing the Germany embassy in Kabul on the incident.
A senior police official said that the police built a "security belt" in the area and "an intensive search ongoing." He also said that NATO forces assisted the search by sending a helicopter to the area.
No Taliban involvement?
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabeehullah Mujahid told dpa by telephone that his group's fighters in the capital had told him they were not involved in the kidnapping of the German woman.
The kidnapping comes at a very sensitive moment for Afghan authorities, who are currently struggling with two other hostage crises, both of which concern the extremist Taliban militia.
The Taliban are holding 19 South Koreans and, separately, a 62-year-old German engineer, demanding the release of jailed operatives in return for their freedom.
The radical Islamist Taliban declared on Saturday that the negotiations with Seoul over the release of 19 South Korean hostages have failed.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi told dpa that his side felt that the negotiators sent by Seoul apparently did not have the power to persuade the Afghan government to meet Taliban's demands for a release of its members from prison.
Further talks would be "a waste of time," Ahmadi said, saying that Taliban's leadership council would now consider the further fate of the remaining 19 South Korean hostages.