UN Hostages Rescued unharmed in Afghanistan
By Husnia Natoor - Pakistan Times Foreign Correspondent / PT Monitoring Desk

KABUL (Afghanistan): Three foreign UN workers who were taken hostage last month in Afghanistan have been released unharmed.

A senior Afghan official said today, Tuesday that the hostages were released during a rescue operation. One kidnapper was killed and four others wounded, he said.

Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Kosovan Shqipe Habibi and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan were abducted at gunpoint from Kabul last month.

They had been helping to conduct the recent presidential election, wherein Hamid Karzai turned victor.

Medical Check-up

The three were released overnight on Monday and taken by UN staff to a military base where they were identified and examined by medical staff.

A Philippines official expressed relief at the release of the hostages. "We appreciate the efforts of the UN as well as of the Afghan government," said Silvestre Afable, spokesman for President Gloria Arroyo.

Raid and Assault

An earlier story said that US and Afghan forces staged a dramatic pre-dawn raid on three houses in southwest Kabul Monday in a bid to locate and free a trio of foreign UN hostages held for over three weeks, officials said.

At 4:30 am (00:00 GMT) Afghan intelligence officials and US soldiers stormed three private home in the Karte-Se neighbourhood while US helicopters fired rockets, hitting at least one home and damaging the surrounding properties, residents said.

"This morning there was an operation related to releasing the hostages. We don't know the exact details. We are still working on it," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Pamela Keeton said.

She said the operation was led by the Afghan government. "It was a search for our lost people," an Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

Arrests

"Some people were picked up for questioning."

Residents of the three houses said at least 10 people had been detained including a doctor and his 17-year-old son and pleaded with the Afghan authorities to release their menfolk who they claimed were innocent.

"Our concern now is where are our people. We want the government to release our men," said Zakia, wife of Dr. Mohammed Monir who was detained.

Recap

UN staffers Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayanwere snatched in downtown Kabul by armed men on October-28.

A woman in one of the houses said US soldiers showed her pictures of the three hostages who she did not recognise and she questioned why anyone would keep hostages in a house in the city center adjacent to the main road.

The Locale

All three houses are on the main Darlaman Road which runs through the center of Kabul. A senior Afghan intelligence official said the operation was "routine."

"Each two or three days the coalition, ISAF and NDS are conducting similar operations," he said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force peacekeeping force and the National Directorate of Security.

"Two days ago we had a similar one in the Paghman valley," he said, referring to a region on Kabul's western outskirts where the hostages where initially believed to have been taken.

The top US commander in Afghanistan General David Barno had told reporters that the US was working with the United Nations and the Afghan government to help free the hostages, but gave no further details.

"We are working very closely with the Afghan law enforcement and our international partners here in Kabul to bring to the perpetrators of this crime to justice and ensure the hostages are released safely," he said at a regular news briefing.

The Threat

A shadowy Taliban splinter group had claimed to be holding the hostages. Several of their spokesmen have threatened to kill the hostages if authorities tried to rescue them by force.

Some Afghan government officials say a criminal gang might have been holding them.

Plea by Families

The families of three caged UN workers had made a direct appeal to their captors. In a statement the families, including that of Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, beged for them to be released.

"Everybody is praying for you and hoping that you will be home soon," the Flanigan family's part of the statement on Tuesday said.

"We dearly hope that the people holding Angelito, Annetta and Shqipe will demonstrate that honour at this holy time and place them somewhere safe where they can be found and restored to us," the statement had added, referring to the Muslim festival of Eid.

"At this sacred time and of giving gifts, the only gift we desire is their safe return." The latest deadline, set by captors had expired on Tuesday evening with no word on the fate of the captives.

On Monday the purported leader of the group, Akbar Agha had said that there was division in the group about their next step. Two weeks ago a criminal suspected of links to the kidnappers died in police custody amid allegations he was tortured.

The kidnapping, the first of foreign UN or aid workers in Kabul since the Taliban regime collapsed three years ago, had triggered fears of a spate of kidnappings mimicking the frequent hostage-takings that have plagued Iraq, where more than 30 foreign hostages have been killed by their captors.●