Taliban: We Have Executed One South Korean Hostage; The Rest Will Be Executed July 26, 2007

A communiqué issued by the Taliban on July 25, 2007 announced that one of the South Korean hostages had been executed that day, and that the rest would be executed on July 26, 2007, starting at 1:00 AM local time.

The following are excerpts:

"We have submitted a list of hostages that we wish to receive in exchange [for the South Korean hostages], but the collaborating [Afghan] government would not comply with our demands or do anything whatsoever in this matter.

"Therefore, today at 15:45 local time we executed one of the [South] Korean hostages, by the name of Kio (son of Hotshonj). The execution was carried out in the Qarabagh [district] in the Ghazni province, in accordance with Muslim shari'a and the constitution of the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan].

"We call once again on the South Korean people and on the occupying [South Korean] government... to pressure the collaborating government in Kabul to work [for the release] of these [South] Korean hostages.

"If we receive no reply from the collaborating government in Kabul, we will begin to kill the rest of the hostages tomorrow at 1:00 AM local time."