Recent Kidnappings in Afghanistan

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007 | 6:25 a.m.

SOUTH KOREAN CHRISTIANS: 23 South Korean Christian aid workers are taken hostage while traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. Two of the hostages were shot and two women were freed. The Taliban agree to free the remaining 19 in exchange for a promise from South Korea to end missionary work in Afghanistan and withdraw its troops from the country by the end of the year, as previously planned.

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GERMAN ENGINEERS: German engineers Rudolf Blechschmidt and Ruediger Diedrich and five Afghan colleagues are kidnapped in southern Wardak province on July 18. Diedrich is found shot dead July 21. Blechschmidt and four Afghans remain in custody. One of the Afghans escaped, according to Taliban captors.

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FRENCH AID WORKERS: French aid workers Celine Cordelier and Eric Damfreville from the group Terre d'Enfance and their three Afghan colleagues - Mohammad Hashim and brothers Ghulam Rasul and Ghulam Azrat - are abducted along with two French colleagues on April 3 in the southwestern province of Nimroz. All were released over the next two months.

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ITALIAN JOURNALIST: Daniele Mastrogiacomo is abducted in southern Helmand province with two Afghan colleagues on March 5. Mastrogiacomo is released March 19 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners. Both Afghans were beheaded.

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ITALIAN PHOTOGRAPHER: Italian photographer Gabriele Torsello and his Afghan translator are abducted while driving from Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand province, toward neighboring Kandahar on Oct. 12. Torsello was left by the side of a road on Nov. 3.

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COLOMBIAN AID WORKER: Gunmen kidnap a Colombian aid worker and two Afghan employees of a French-funded nongovernment organization in southern Wardak province on Sept. 12. The three were released three weeks later.