Taliban Continue Holding South Koreans Hostage

Taliban in Afghanistan continue holding 22 South Koreans, who were kidnapped while their bus was driving through central Afghanistan.

An Afghan team that was supposed to have held more talks with the Taliban on Saturday could not reach the group because of security concerns in Ghazni province, provincial sources said.

The team hoped to persuade the insurgents to free without condition the Christian volunteers they kidnapped from a bus 10 days ago in Ghazni, south of Kabul.

A deputy interior minister on Saturday told Reuters that force might be used if talks fail.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, on Sunday warned against use of force and pressed for the freedom of the rebel prisoners as the main condition for the release of the Koreans.

"There is no need for further talks. We have given the government a list of Taliban prisoners who should be released and that is our main demand," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

They've already killed one of the hostages, shooting him 10 times and claimed that he was simply too ill to be held.

The Taliban are ruthless and are demanding the release of more thugs from prison. It would set a real bad precedent if a prisoner swap were to occur, because it would only encourage more kidnappings and further concessions. It would be repeating the same exact mistakes that Israel has been dealing with in regards to Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli jails.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai calls the Taliban kidnapping un-Islamic.

Karzai criticized the Taliban's kidnapping of "foreign guests," especially women, as contrary to the tenets of Islam.

"This will have a shameful effect on the dignity of the Afghan people," Karzai said in a statement from the presidential palace released after talks with a South Korean delegation.

Of course, Islamists have a different take on what they can or can't do under Islam - they pretty much call it open season on infidels and those who aren't as Muslim as they are.