75 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-24 19:40

A five-member delegation from Ghazni province traveled to a remote area of Qarabagh district to try to secure the Koreans' freedom, said Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi, the local police chief.

"Our negotiations are continuing," said Khial Mohammad Husseini, a lawmaker for Ghazni. "I hope that today we will get a good result."

The deputy interior minister, Abdul Khaliq said Afghanistan was not prepared to make a deal "against our national interest and our constitution," though he did not explicitly rule out freeing any prisoners.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun appealed for calm, saying at a Cabinet meeting "it's not a time to be hastily optimistic nor to be prematurely pessimistic about the outcome."

"It's important to resolve this in a calm and cool-headed attitude," he said. "The most important goal at this time is to get them back safely."

The South Korean Defense Ministry said it asked the Afghan military to refrain from conducting operations around the area where the hostages were believed held to avoid provoking the kidnappers.

The South Korean hostages, including 18 women, were kidnapped on Thursday while riding on a bus through Ghazni on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.

More than 100 villagers in Ghazni demonstrated for their release Tuesday.

Violence has spiked sharply in Afghanistan the last two months. More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.

In other violence, a roadside blast killed four US soldiers in eastern Paktika province on Monday, said Gov. Mohammad Ekram Akhpelwak.

Norway said one if its soldiers was killed in Logar province, and NATO said a sixth soldier was killed in the south, though the soldier's nationality was not released.

The deaths bring to 114 the number of Western soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, including 54 Americans, according to the AP count.

Also Tuesday, Afghanistan's last king was to be buried in a hilltop shrine in Kabul next to his late wife and other members of the royal family in a ceremony attended by foreign and Afghan dignitaries.

Mohammad Zahir Shah, who oversaw four decades of relative peace before a 1973 palace coup ousted him and war shattered his country, died Monday at 92.