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Militants free three kidnapped Afghan aid workers

Taliban militants have freed three Afghan hostages who were abducted with their two French colleagues in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the extremist movement said yesterday.

"Our court and leadership council decided to free them. They were freed yesterday [Saturday]," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a telephone call from an unknown location.

Mujahid said the three were found "not guilty," and that there had been numerous demands for their release.

"Two French workers were released a month ago. Last night three Afghans -- Hazrat, M. Hashem and Ghulam Rosl -- have been released in Nimroz Province without any compensation," the Taliban's Web page said.

Nimroz police chief Mohammad Daud Askaryar confirmed the men had returned to their homes.

"The families of the three abducted Afghans assured us that they have returned home safe and sound," he said.

The three Afghans and their two French colleagues, Eric Damfreville and Celine Cordelier, were working for Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children) when they were kidnapped on April 3 in southern Nimroz Province.

The militants first freed Cordelier on April 28 with a written message to the French government demanding it withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Damfreville was freed two weeks.

Meanwhile, a clash with Taliban militants overnight killed two Afghan police and 10 insurgents, police said yesterday.

The militants from the ultra-Islamic Taliban attacked a police post in the Shah Walikot district of Kandahar Province, triggering a two-hour gun battle, police chief Obaidullah Khan said.

Separately, the US-led coalition forces said yesterday that soldiers and Afghan police detained an al-Qaeda "cell commander" in southeastern Khost Province. He was identified only as Mujahid.
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