GHAZNI: Four Turkish engineers kidnapped by Afghanistan's Taliban more than eight months ago were freed overnight, their abductors and officials said.
The men, taken captive last December in eastern Afghanstan's Paktia province, were handed to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in the neighbouring province of Ghazni, an AFP reporter in the area saw.
"We were kidnapped by the Taliban eight and a half months ago. We're released on the occasion of Eid by Mullah Mohammad Omar," one of the captives told AFP, referring to the Taliban leader.
The Turk, who gave his name only as Imam, said "no ransom was paid" and "we were not tortured" while in captivity, before being rushed to Ghazni city.
Authorities refused to give details but Haji Zahir, a Ghazni province tribal elder who facilitated the release, told AFP that the Taliban freed the four "only on the occasion of Eid."
The release of prisoners at Eid is an Afghan tradition.
"Yes we freed the four Turkish engineers on the occasion of Eid," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP.
Turkey has hundreds of military troops operating under the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan, in a deadly decade-long conflict.
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