Taliban Kills South Korean Hostage, 1 of 23

Group Vows More Deaths If Demands Are Not Met

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 26 -- The Taliban said Wednesday that it had executed a South Korean hostage, one of 23 held by the group since last week, and threatened to kill more hostages if its demands were not met.

A Taliban official said that negotiations were continuing and that the hostage killed Wednesday was selected because he was ill and unable to walk.

[The Reuters news service, reporting from Seoul, said South Korea had identified the victim as Bae Hyung Kyu, 42, a Christian pastor who was the leader of the group. His bullet-riddled body was found near where the group was abducted.]

The Taliban official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied reports in which Western officials were quoted as saying eight hostages had been freed Wednesday. He said a recorded statement by one of the hostages, most of whom are women, would be released soon.

The South Koreans are the largest group of foreign hostages taken in Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted from power during the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. Members of a church based outside Seoul, they had been traveling between the capital, Kabul, and the restive southern city of Kandahar when their bus was overtaken in the central province of Ghazni. South Korean officials have said the church members were doing aid work and were not missionaries.

The kidnapping appears to fit a pattern in which the Taliban targets people from countries that are on the fence about their commitment to the mission in Afghanistan. South Korea has 200 noncombat health care workers and engineers in the country who are due to leave by year's end. The Taliban also wants its prisoners freed.

Of two Germans also kidnapped last week, one died in custody and one is believed to be still held by the Taliban.

In the spring, the Taliban kidnapped an Italian journalist and traded him for the release of five imprisoned Taliban members. The Afghan government was criticized and vowed not to make such a deal again.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S.-led coalition reported that more than 70 insurgents were killed after they attempted to ambush patrols led by Afghan soldiers in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. NATO forces reported that one of their troops had been killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in the east. The soldier's nationality was not identified.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez told reporters Wednesday that cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan last month were double the number recorded in June 2006 and that there had been an approximately 50 percent rise in the influx of foreign fighters during the same period. But he also said attacks have declined in recent weeks as the Pakistani army battles extremist fighters on its side of the border.

Special correspondent Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.