South Korea paid $20 million ransom: Taliban leader

By Saeed Ali Achakzai

SPIN BOLDAK (Reuters) - South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than $20 million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

But Seoul denies paying a ransom and there were signs of confusion among the Taliban when a spokesman also said no money had changed hands to secure the Koreans' freedom.

"We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Saturday.

But the senior Taliban leader disagreed.

"We got more than $20 million dollars from them (the Seoul government)," the commander told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks."

"The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had," he said, but did not elaborate.

The Taliban leader rejected an Afghan government statement that a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Brother, was killed in a U.S.-led operation on Thursday in the southern province of Helmand.

"This report is just propaganda," he said.