Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a restaurant in Kabul on Saturday, officials said, as a Taliban spokesman said negotiations over 19 South Korean hostages held since July have failed.
A number of armed men pulled up next to a barbecue and fast food restaurant, and one of the men went inside and asked to order a pizza. Two assailants waited outside, while another waited in a parked gray Toyota Corolla.
The man in the restaurant then pulled out a pistol, walked up to a table where the woman was sitting with her boyfriend, and took her away, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of policy. It was not immediately clear what happened to the boyfriend.
Police, alerted to the kidnapping, spotted the speeding car and opened fire, but instead hit a nearby taxi and killed its driver.
The latest kidnapping comes amid heightened fears of abductions, after 23 South Koreans and two Germans were taken hostage in separate incidents last month in central Afghanistan.
The German woman abducted Saturday worked for a small, nonaffiliated Christian organization called Ora International, a man affiliated with the group told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the press.
Based in the central German town of Korbach, north of Frankfurt, the group is active in 30 countries around the world and concentrates its efforts in Afghanistan on health issues and HIV/AIDS awareness, the group said on its Web site.
UN staff in Kabul, meanwhile, were told this afternoon to remain in their locations, a UN official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on security matters. Other foreigners were also placed under tight security.
AP