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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea said Saturday it plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year as scheduled. The announcement came shortly after Taliban militants threatened to kill a group of kidnapped South Korean Christians unless Seoul pulled its soldiers out.
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters that 23 South Koreans were kidnapped and indicated that they are safe. A purported Taliban spokesman said Friday that the group was holding 18 Koreans.
The South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus in Ghazni province's Qarabagh district on Thursday as they traveled on the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. It was the largest scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
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