KABUL, (AFP) - Afghan forces backed by foreign peacekeepers fanned through a valley west of Kabul in a massive manhunt for three UN election workers kidnapped by gunmen from outside their office in the Afghan capital.
A woman with dual British-Irish nationality Annetta Flanigan, a Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan and a Kosovar woman were pulled from their UN-marked car by armed men and bundled into a black four-wheel drive Thursday, as the slow count from Afghanistan's first presidential vote ended.
"Police, intelligence and forces from Kabul army garrison have been tasked to find the kidnapped people," an Afghan intelligence official said.
Apache helicopters from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force led the aerial search, as roadblocks were thrown up around the congested city and main streets blocked for car-searches by heavily-armed troop.
After sweeping several neighbourhoods in Kabul the security forces honed in on the Paghman valley west of the mountain-ringed capital, security officials said.
"Investigations are under way," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP. He refused to give details.
The Jaishul-Muslameen (Army of Muslims), described by intelligence officials as a new military wing of the Taliban, claimed responsibility.
"Fighters from the Army of Muslims have kidnapped the three UN workers," the group's commander, Syed Akbar Agha, told the Arabic television network Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad.
A senior Pakistani religious leader said Jaishul-Muslameen was the new military wing of Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban regime, ousted three years ago by US-led forces.
Its mission is to "conduct military operations against occupying forces, targeting foreign non-governmental organisations and people associated with them," said the Pakistani religious leader, who had close links with the ousted regime.
Mullah Omar, the hardliners' fugitive spiritual leader, was overall commander with Agha its operational commander, he said.
Afghan intelligence chief for southern Kandahar province, Abdullah Laghmanay, told AFP this month that the Army of Muslims was a radical new Taliban wing "operating in small bands of two or three fighters."
A regular Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, said he doubted Jaishul-Muslameen had the numbers or capacity to carry out the abduction.
He was unsure whether Taliban militants were behind the abduction but said he would praise the act if it was aimed against US-led forces or at pressing the US to release Taliban prisoners.
The abduction is the first of foreigners in Kabul and has raised fears of copycat kidnappings mimicking the wave of abductions in Iraq.
"You can't rule it out," Nick Downie, security advisory for a coalition of aid organisations, told AFP.
Several abductions of Indian and Turkish engineers took place on the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar between October and March. All were released except for one Turkish national who was killed.
Suspected Taliban insurgents, who had vowed to sabotage the UN-assisted October 9 presidential election, have killed more than 61 election workers this year, three of them foreigners, Downie said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed "deep regret and dismay" at the abduction.
"The United Nations is in close contact with the authorities and is hoping for the staff members' immediate and unconditional release."
The US embassy warned this month foreigners could be targeted for political kidnappings.
"Anti-government forces are planning to implement a policy of kidnapping foreigners as a political tool," the embassy said in a statement on October 8.
10/29/2004 - 02:52 GMT - AFP