ISTANBUL: Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced the Taliban have freed four of eight Turkish engineers taken hostage last month in Afghanistan.
"Eight Turkish engineers were kidnapped recently in Afghanistan when their helicopter crash-landed. Thanks to the efforts of MIT (Turkish intelligence), four of them were handed over to us and are safe," Erdogan told a rally in Istanbul.
A Russian, a Kyrgyz and an Afghan were kidnapped along with the eight Turks on April 21 after the crash-landing of their helicopter in Logar, a Taliban stronghold south of the capital Kabul.
Tribal chiefs helped to negotiate the release of the four Turks.
The seizure was the largest abduction of foreigners in almost six years and highlighted Afghanistan's continuing insecurity as NATO combat troops prepare to pull out next year.
The last time a major group of foreigners was abducted in the country was in July 2007, when the Taliban seized 23 South Korean church volunteers travelling through the south by coach.
The militants killed two men before releasing the rest, reportedly in return for ransom payments.
The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led invasion and have been battling Afghan and foreign troops ever since.
Attacks by them and other insurgents rose 47 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to January-March 2012, according to figures from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office.
NATO member Turkey has around 1,850 non-combat soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul. (AFP)
