Taliban kidnaps Red Cross workers

Taliban militants have kidnapped two officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Afghan province of Wardak.

A police spokesman said the two were taken hostage in the Salar district yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the ICRC said four staff - two foreigners and two Afghans - had travelled to Wardak, southwest of Kabul, yesterday but had not returned. She declined to say if they had been kidnapped.

The number of kidnappings has increased this year.

Militants kidnapped 23 South Koreans on July 19th in Ghazni province as they travelled by bus on a dangerous road from Kabul to volatile Kandahar in the south.

That secured the Taliban talks with South Korean government delegates.

Two hostages were killed, and the rest were released after weeks of negotiations between the Taliban and the Korean delegation.