Taliban to free remaining Turkish hostages

Taliban militant leaders pledged on Monday to release the rest four Turkish engineers kidnapped last month in eastern Afghanistan, Turkish Daily News reported. On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said four of the eight Turkish kidnapped by Taliban militants were released. The Taliban said in an emailed statement that the four had been released "as a goodwill humanitarian gesture and as a sign of respect to the Muslim people of Turkey," adding that "the other four will be released in the near future." The eight Turkish engineers, along with an Afghan and two pilots from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, were onboard a Russian Mi-8 helicopter when it landed in a remote part of Logar province due to a bad weather condition in April. They were later taken captive by the Taliban who controls the area.