Video shows UN Afghan hostages
 

Three UN workers held hostage by militants in Afghanistan have appeared in a video shown by Arabic TV.
The three appeared unharmed in the video, in which their kidnappers called for the release of prisoners from Afghan jails and Guantanamo Bay.

Filipino Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo were seized on Thursday at gunpoint.

They were in Afghanistan to help organise recent presidential elections.

The UN in Kabul, confirming that the footage did show the UN workers, has appealed for their release, saying they all needed medical attention.

There have been repeated claims that a militant Islamic group, the Army of Muslims (Jaish-e-Muslimeen) is holding the three foreigners.

Repeated messages have threatened the lives of the hostages unless Afghan prisoners are released, and foreign forces withdrawn from Afghanistan. The militants also want an end to UN operations there.

Taleban links

In the video footage, the three hostages were shown crouching up against a wall beside a masked man.

It is not clear when the video was made, although a member of the group was quoted as saying by AFP news agency that it was given to the TV station, al-Jazeera, at 0900 (0430 GMT) on Sunday.

The video was shown after the group provided evidence it was holding the hostages to the BBC, reading out at least one credit card number which belongs to one of them.

The group is believed to have strong Taleban links.

Elsewhere in the country, US forces have continued to clash with suspected Taleban and other militants, dampening hopes that the relative quiet during the 9 October elections would hold.

In the most serious incident, the US military says its soldiers killed five people and arrested nine others on Thursday near the Pakistani border.

A US spokesman said this followed an operation against what he described as an al-Qaeda facilitator, but he would not say who this individual was.

It is in this region that Osama Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3969083.stm

do you just post every BBC article you can find?

this guy is a joke

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