When I think about hostages and kidnapping, I always go back to Iraq in 2006 when those guys from Crescent Security were snatched at a checkpoint by some thugs, and later murdered. If the Taliban are really serious about these kinds of activities, I would not put it past them to pose as Police to pull off successful kidnappings like in Iraq. It is all about the money, and this stuff is big business.
This guy that was rescued recently was damn lucky. I am happy for him and his family, and I am really happy for the SF team that was able to successfully pull this off. These types of operations are no small feat, and my hats off to the planners of this thing.
The other trend is beheadings. The Taliban have done this before in the past, and this is nothing new. What is alarming is them actually beheading ‘groups’ of folk at one time, like what happened on the bus take down in the story below. What’s next, Taliban beheading videos on youtube? Who knows, but it looks like the Taliban and others are thinking in terms of kidnappings and beheadings as viable options in their war. It looks like they are taking the page right out of the Iraq playbook for this kind of thing. –Head Jundi
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US commandos rescue American hostage near Kabul
By JASON STRAZIUSO
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Special Forces soldiers freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers during a nighttime mission last week — a rare hostage rescue in a country where ransom abductions have become increasingly common.
The American, who had been working on U.S. government-funded infrastructure projects, was abducted in mid-August and had been held just 30 miles west of Kabul with no public notice of his abduction. The dangerous mission to free the U.S. contractor killed several insurgents, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
Taliban militants have kidnapped several international aid workers and journalists in recent years and have been paid large ransoms or negotiated the release of imprisoned Taliban fighters in exchange.
But increasingly aggressive crime syndicates are also raking in big money by kidnapping wealthy Afghans and foreigners and demanding ransoms.
“This guy didn’t have any money at all. It was like a personal life mission for him to help others,” said Bruce J. Huffman, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan. “We all felt sick about it, because he was never going to be able to pay a ransom. He’s over here helping people and they’re trying to make a buck off him.”
Hostage rescues are rarely attempted and difficult to pull off successfully. Not only could the hostage be killed by his abductors during the rescue, but U.S. forces could also accidentally shoot the hostage.
U.S. Special Forces were able to locate the kidnapper’s hideaway in the Nirkh district of Wardak province, though U.S. military officials who spoke to AP about the rescue would not say how. Three U.S. officials offered some details on the rescue on condition they weren’t identified because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
But the three declined to give specific information, saying they didn’t want to compromise tactics used in the rescue or further endanger Army Corps of Engineer personnel, who work on projects like road building and hydroelectric projects in Afghanistan’s increasingly dangerous provinces.
Story Here
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Taliban kills 31 Afghans in ambush on a bus – beheading six of them
By Daily Mail Reporter
20th October 2008
Six bus passengers were beheaded on Sunday in a Taliban ambush that left 31 Afghans dead.
The vehicle was travelling in convoy with another bus on the main road through a part of Kandahar province, an area under Taliban control.
Militants fired on the first bus, killing a child on board, but failed to stop it.
An Afghan policeman guards a highway in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after Taliban militants killed 31 passengers in a bus ambush.
Massacre: An Afghan policeman guards a highway in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after Taliban militants killed 31 passengers in a bus ambush.
They stopped the second bus and took 50 civilians hostage. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, of the Afghan defence ministry, said around 30 were killed, six by beheading.
A Taliban spokesman said its fighters carried out the attack, but insisted only 27 people were killed and all were Afghan army soldiers.
He said everyone on the bus had their papers checked and any civilians were set free.
But General Azimi dismissed the claim saying: ‘Our soldiers travel by military convoy, not in civilian buses. And we have military air transportation.’
Taliban attacks have become increasingly lethal this year, as the militia has gained power and surged through the south and east of Afghanistan.
More than 5,100 people have died in violence in the country this year, mostly militants.