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| US may use force to free S Korean |
| The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department officia
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 3-August-2007
10:44:2 AM |
| The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.
''All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages,'' said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia. ''The goal is to get these people released unharmed, to get them released peacefully and safely.''
Boucher spoke ahead of a weekend visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who will meet with President George W Bush at Camp David.
In the hostage case, Boucher noted cooperation between the governments of the United States, Afghanistan and South Korea.
He declined to elaborate on what pressures or efforts were being used or considered but said they included the option of military force.
''There are things that we say, things that others say, things that are done and said within Afghan society as well as potential military pressures,'' Boucher said.
South Korea has appealed to the US for help following the murder of two of the initial 23 hostages taken near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 19.
Face-to-face talks
Boucher's remarks appeared at odds with those of a South Korean official who said that Seoul's foreign minister, Song Min-soon, and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had agreed during a meeting Thursday in the Philippines to rule out a military attempt to end the standoff.
Several deadlines set by the Taliban for the Afghan government to free militant prisoners in exchange for the hostages' release have passed.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, South Korean and Afghan officials trying to find an acceptable meeting place after agreeing to hold face-to-face talks with the Taliban to seek the release of the captives, according to a chief negotiator.
Two of the hostages are said by the Taliban to be seriously ill and could die.
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