GHAZNI (AFGHANISTAN) - A GERMAN engineer and four Afghans kidnapped in southern Afghanistan in mid-July were freed yesterday in exchange for five Taleban prisoners, an Afghan official said.
'The German engineer along with four Afghan hostages were freed in exchange for five Taleban prisoners,' said Mr Mohammad Naeem, governor of Jaghato district in Wardak province.
'The German engineer is in good health.'
Mr Rudolf Blechschmidt, 62, is one of two German engineers and five Afghans taken hostage on July 18 in Wardak province in central Afghanistan.
The other German was found dead from gunshot wounds on July 21, while one of the Afghans apparently managed to escape.
Mr Blechschmidt told Germany's Spiegel magazine on his release that he was 'doing well' and that he was 'just a little tired', according to a short telephone interview posted on the magazine's website.
In Germany, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier thanked Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government for helping to secure Mr Blechschmidt's release.
He said in a statement yesterday that Germany was 'happy and relieved' that Mr Blechschmidt had been released along with his Afghan guides.
Mr Steinmeier said Mr Blechschmidt was in the hands of the Afghan authorities, and that the German Embassy had spoken to the engineer by telephone.
The release comes just two days after Mr Blechschmidt appeared on a new video appealing to the Afghan and German governments to make a deal with the militants for his release before winter.
