A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said four kidnapped staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were released in Wardak province of central Afghanistan on Saturday.

Mujahid told Xinhua from an undisclosed place that the four were freed in Sayd Abad district near the Kabul-Kandahar highway. He claimed Taliban militants first mistook them as spies, so they detained them.

Afghan officials also confirmed the release.

The four were abducted together with a newly released German hostage in Wardak province when they were on their way back to Kabul on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammad Sadiq, who is an aide to Wardak governor.

The Taliban spokesman did not mention the condition of the German hostage.

Two of the four ICRC members were foreigners, while the other two were Afghan drivers.

The German was kidnapped by Taliban militants in Wardak in July together with another German, who later was shot dead, and five Afghans.

Afghanistan has witnessed many kidnappings recently, some of which are carried out Taliban militants, while others by criminal groups.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2007)