KABUL, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban spokesman warned Friday that some of the 22 South Korean hostages were in bad health, saying hours after the kidnappers' latest deadline passed that the captives were crying and worried about their future.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the kidnappers, told The Associated Press by phone that the group still insisted on exchanging Taliban prisoners for the captives, who could be killed if the demand was not met. Ahmadi spoke several hours after the passage of the most recent Taliban deadline but said the militia had not set a new one.
Some of the South Koreans were "not in good condition," Ahmadi said. "I don't know if the weather is not good for them, or our food. The women hostages are crying. The men and women are worried about their future."
One hostage, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was found dead of multiple gunshots on Wednesday in Qarabagh, the district where the hostages were being held.
Local tribal elders and clerics continued telephone negotiations with the captors, and were struggling with conflicting demands that included ransom as well as the release of Taliban prisoners.
"There are still a lot of problems among them," Qarabagh police chief Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi said. "One says, 'Let's exchange them for my relative,' the others say, 'Let's release the women,' and yet another wants a deal for money."
Ahmadi denied that.
"The Taliban are not asking for money. We just want to exchange our prisoners for Korean hostages. ... When they release the Taliban, we will release the hostages," he said.
It remained unclear how many militants the Taliban want freed, or which ones.
Envoy arrives in Kabul
Meanwhile, a South Korean presidential envoy arrived for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other top officials, and Afghan officials said they remained upbeat about the chances of freeing the hostages without further bloodshed.
"We hope we will have a good result, but I don't know if they will be released today. I don't think they will be," said Shirin Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, where the Koreans were taken.
In Seoul, a Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, said the captives were still believed to be safe and that officials were trying to get medicine and other items delivered to them.
Ahmadi said the hostages were being held in small groups in various locations and were being fed bread, yogurt and rice.
"What should happen is that these people should be released, unconditionally, immediately and unharmed, back to South Korean authorities, so they can return back to their families," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.
The South Koreans, including 18 women, were kidnapped while traveling by bus on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.
Their church said the captives were not involved in any Christian missionary work in Afghanistan and had provided only medical and other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country. It said it will suspend some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan.
The widow of the slain pastor made a tearful appeal Friday for the release of the remaining hostages, saying she does not want other families to experience her grief.
"I sincerely hope that the pain the families are already having enough won't deepen with more sadness," Kim Hee-yeon told reporters. "I sincerely hope there won't be any more victims."
In southern Helmand province, meanwhile, as many as 50 suspected militants and 28 civilians were killed when international and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents and called in airstrikes, Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan said.
Khan identified the foreign troops as NATO forces, but NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it did not have any information about the incident.
Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan the last two months. More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an AP tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
Repeated incidents of civilian fatalities have hurt public support for the foreign military mission in Afghanistan and has prompted Karzai to plead with NATO and U.S. forces to take care to avoid civilian casualties.
The U.S. and NATO blame the Taliban, saying the militants often launch attacks from civilian homes.
