Afghan doctors deliver medicine to Korea hostages

AFGHAN doctors delivered medicines yesterday for 21 South Koreans kidnapped by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan more than two weeks ago.The head of a private Afghan clinic said his team had dropped more than US$1,200 worth of antibiotics, pain killers, vitamin tablets and heart pills in an area of desert in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province as instructed by the rebels. "This is a big achievement. Among the Koreans are doctors who know how to use these medicines," Mohammad Hashim Wahaj told reporters in Ghazni, the main town of the province, where 23 South Korean church volunteers were snatched from a bus on July 20. "It was a big risk, but we had to take the risk because it is a humanitarian issue," he said.The Taliban have killed two of their captives and are threatening to kill the rest if the Afghan government fails to release rebel prisoners. Kabul has refused to free jailed Taliban, saying that would just encourage more kidnappings.The hostage issue is likely to cast a shadow over two days of security talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W Bush due to begin at the US presidential retreat, Camp David, later yesterday.Wahaj said he had been in contact with the kidnappers who told him two of the remaining hostages were seriously ill. The Taliban were willing to free those two hostages, he said, but only if two Taliban prisoners were also freed.Reuters