Car bomb hits Isaf base in Kabul, another hostage is killed
Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A suicide car bomb wounded three troops from a U.S.-led force and three Afghan civilians near Camp Phoenix, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in Kabul. The attacker exploded his vehicle against an Isaf convoy, but so far the nationality of the wounded soldiers has not been released.
Meanwhile yesterday, the Taliban shot dead a second South Korean hostage and threatened to kill more of the 21 hostages if Kabul does not free rebel prisoners by 0730 GMT on Wednesday: thus the fate of the Christians has worsened the Taliban kidnapped the 23 South Koreans Christians riding on a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Southern Afghanistan on July 19.
Police sources report that the blood-stained body of the bespectacled male Korean wasdumped on a clover field beside a road in Arzoo, a village lying some 10 km (6 miles) to the southeast of the town of Ghazni in central Afghanistan. According to Korean media the latest victim was identified as Shim Sung-min, 29, added to the first victim – the Presbyterian pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, 42 – whose body was found Wednesday last.
There a no signs of hope for a resolution to the hostage situation at the moment – in Afghanistan officially on “humanitarian grounds”. A video of the group was broadcast yesterday by the Arab satellite TV channel al-Jazeera: A man claiming to speak on behalf of the Taliban said the militants had killed Shim Sung-min on Monday evening because the Afghan government had refused its demands to release 8 jailed rebels. 21 hostages now remain in the hands of the fundamentalists, 16 of whom are women.
Despite a further execution, President Hamid Karzai has not yielded to the kidnappers demands: in March of last year he was criticised for having released 5 guerrillas from prison in exchange for the freedom of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, after which he pledged that there would be no more prisoner hostage exchanges, or giving into blackmail.
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