KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Thomson Financial) - Taliban rebels in Afghanistan on Sunday gave 23 South Korean hostages a day's reprieve, extending a deadline by which they threatened to kill the captives if their demands were not met.
The Islamic militants announced the 24-hour extension as frantic talks dragged on into the night to save the aid workers, warning however that the hostages would be killed if nearby Afghan forces tried to storm their hideout.
The guerilla fighters have demanded that Kabul free 23 jailed Taliban in return for the hostages, and that South Korea withdraw its 200 troops serving under US-led command in the war-torn country.
'We have extended the deadline by 24 hours, which will last until tomorrow at 7:00 pm (1430 GMT Monday),' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said minutes after the earlier limit expired.
'The talks continue,' he said in a telephone call from an unknown location, without providing further detail.
Fears for the captives, mostly women in their 20s and 30s abducted last Thursday in southern Afghanistan, rose after police recovered the body of a German engineer.
The Taliban earlier said it had killed two Germans abducted a day before the South Koreans, but Kabul and Berlin insisted one of them was still alive.
A South Korean crisis team Sunday flew into Kabul to spearhead efforts to save its nationals, while Seoul reaffirmed that it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by year's end as it had already planned.
The double hostage crisis is the latest in a series of abductions targeting the 37 countries with forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban have also demanded that the 3,000 German troops stationed in the country be sent home. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com afp/hjp COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.