Kidnapped U.N. hostages freed
(CNN) -- Three U.N. workers abducted in Kabul nearly a month ago were freed on Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said.
All three appeared to be healthy, David Bennett of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said after their release.
The three hostages -- Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Habibi of Kosovo -- were taken from the Afghan capital in late October.
The Jaish-al Muslimeen, a Taliban splinter group, released a videotape in early November showing the frightened captives pleading for their lives and a safe return home.
The group demanded that the United Nations pull out of Afghanistan.
They also called for the release of prisoners in Afghanistan and from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where several hundred detainees captured during the war in Afghanistan are being held.
When the trio were captured on October 28, it was the first such abduction in the Afghan capital since the Taliban fell three years ago.
The motive for the release remains unknown.
Afghanistan's Interior Minister Ali Jalali told a press conference in Kabul Tuesday that the freed hostages were in good health, and that no ransom demand had been met for their release.
The release of the trio came hours after U.S. and Afghan forces raided two houses in downtown Kabul on Monday and detained 10 people in connection with the abductions, The Associated Press reported.
Most of the detainees were released after being questioned, an Afghan intelligence official said.
The leader of the Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims group, told The AP it had no links to anyone detained in Kabul on Monday.
Akbar Agha said in a telephone call Monday that the militants were "very close to an understanding" with government negotiators to exchange the hostages for 24 rebels in Afghan jails.
His claims could not be verified.
