KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) – A police official said Wednesday that Taliban militants told him they shot and killed one of 23 South Korean hostages, while two Western officials said some others from the group of captives were freed and taken to an American military base.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said one of the captives had been shot and killed around 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), and a police official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation said militants told him the hostage was sick and couldn’t walk, and therefore was shot.

Mr. Ahmadi said the Korean’s body was left in the Musheky area of Qarabagh district in Ghazni province. Police said they were going to look for the body.
Some of the Koreans, meanwhile, were freed and were taken to the American base in Ghazni, according to two Western officials who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The officials did not know how many were freed.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing unidentified Korean officials, reported eight Koreans had been released.

Earlier, a German journalist and two Afghans colleagues apparently kidnapped by Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan were freed, an Afghan governor said.

Officials found the German and other two captives with the help of villagers in Kunar province, said Governor Dedar Shalezai.

The three told Mr. Shalezai by phone that they are in good health and with Afghan officials.

The German news magazine Stern confirmed that one of its reporters had been in Afghanistan, and the German Foreign Ministry said it was investigating reports of the journalist’s abduction.

The South Korean hostages, including 18 women, were kidnapped July 19 while riding a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan’s main thoroughfare.

South Korean negotiators have traveled to Ghazni province to take part in the negotiations.

An Afghan official involved in the negotiations had said a large sum of money would be paid to free eight of the hostages. The official spoke on condition he not be identified citing the sensitivity of the matter, and no other officials would confirm the account.

Foreign governments are suspected to have paid for the release of hostages in Afghanistan in the past but have either kept it quiet or denied it outright.

But Mr. Ahmadi had said the Afghan government had not responded to any of the Taliban’s demands and that the militants planned to kill “a few” of the captives.

Three previous deadlines have passed with no consequences.

Though some of Ahmadi’s statements turn out to be true, he also has made repeated false claims, calling into question the reliability of his information.

The series of recent kidnappings – 26 foreigners have been abducted in the last week – prompted the Afghan government to forbid foreigners living in

Kabul from leaving the city without police permission.

Police said officials stationed at checkpoints at the city’s main gates would stop foreigners from leaving Kabul unless they informed officials 24 hours in advance of their travel plans, said Esmatullah Dauladzai, Kabul’s provincial police chief. The directive, issued Wednesday, is related to the recent kidnappings, he said.

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan, Burt Herman in Seoul, South Korea, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Germany, contributed to this report.