Hostage left dead in road by Taliban

The man’s body, in Western clothing and glasses, was found on the side of the road in the village of Arizo Kalley. He was idenitified as Shim Sung-min, aged 29.

A man claiming to be a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said senior Taliban leaders decided to kill the captive because the government had not met Taliban demands to trade prisoners for the Christian volunteers, who are in their 13th day of captivity.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans from a bus driving through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19. It was the largest group of foreign hostages taken in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

A suicide car bomber blew himself up near a convoy of US-led coalition troops on the outskirts of Kabul today, leaving up to seven civilians and three soldiers wounded.

A Royal Marine killed in Afghanistan while taking part in a mission to root out Taliban insurgents was expected to be named today.

He died on Sunday after he was wounded in a gun battle in Nimruz province in the south-west.

The jagged mountains of Pakistan’s tribal belt conceal the passage of Taliban fighters into Afghanistan.

Its mud fortresses are perfect for training suicide bombers. And al Qaida kingpins are likely to find refuge among its Pashtun inhabitants.

While still supporting embattled President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and stressing the need to cooperate with Pakistan, US officials are now suggesting its military could strike inside Pakistan.

But analysts say it risks destabilising Pakistan and breeding more militancy.

With US intelligence agencies warning that al Qaida is regrouping at Pakistan’s frontier, and Taliban militants launching suicide attacks almost daily, this key ally in the US-led war on terrorism is under growing pressure to crack down on militancy.