Four ICRC staff kidnapped by Taliban

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have kidnapped four staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) southwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, but will release them soon, a Taliban spokesman said on Thursday.

The ICRC confirmed that four men, including two expatriates, had been seized by the "armed opposition" on Wednesday and called for a swift resolution of the situation.

The Swiss-based agency said its humanitarian work would continue in Afghanistan, one of its biggest operations worldwide.

Taliban have kidnapped dozens of Afghans and foreigners in recent months as part of their campaign to create an atmosphere of insecurity, and undermine the government and its Western backers.

The Taliban said it seized the two Afghan and two foreign ICRC staff members, but it was unaware of their identity at the time.

"Our mujahideen detained the Red Cross workers in Wardak province without knowing they were ICRC staff," said a Taliban spokesman who declined to be named. "We have nothing against the Red Cross and we are going to release them soon."

Swiss Television reported that the empty ICRC vehicle -- which bore the agency's emblem of a Red Cross on a white background -- had been found on the route to Kandahar.

ICRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad said the ICRC team was returning from a failed humanitarian mission to facilitate the release of a German engineer held by the Taliban, but to its knowledge there was no link between that mission and the kidnap.

"We confirm that four ICRC staff members were seized by an armed opposition group on their way back to the delegation in Kabul in the district of Wardak, southwest of Kabul," Haddad said in Geneva.

The expatriate staff are from Myanmar and Macedonia, while the other two are Afghan national employees, she said. She declined to release their names or ages.

CONCERN AT THEIR FATE

The men were being held in an "undisclosed location" and the ICRC was in contact with "all parties concerned with the aim to resolve the current situation as swiftly as possible", she said.

"The ICRC is not in a position to say more at this stage in order not to jeopardize the whole process," Haddad said. "We are concerned about their fate."

The spokeswoman declined to comment on whether any ransom or other demands had been received, citing the neutral agency's confidential dialogue with all parties to an armed conflict.

Taliban rebels kidnapped two German engineers in Wardak in July and killed one of them after he suffered a heart attack. The other German is still being held.

In August the ICRC helped facilitate talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials that led to the release of 21 Korean hostages after more than a month of captivity. Two other Koreans were killed.

The ICRC deploys 60 expatriates and some 1,300 Afghan nationals in Afghanistan. Its officials visit several thousand detainees in Afghanistan each year to ensure that they are being treated humanely in accordance with international law.

"The ICRC will not suspend its operations in Afghanistan," Haddad said.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)