Afghanistan's Taliban rebels claimed responsibility today for the kidnapping of two French aid workers and three Afghans guides in the southwest part of the country.
In an Arabic-language statement posted on the Internet, the militant group said: 'The mujahideen of the Islamic state detained on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, two French nationals -- a man called Eric and a woman called Salma with three Afghans.'
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. It it was posted on a Web site used by militant groups including al Qaeda.
The French man and woman, who work for the French aid agency Terre d'Enfance, went missing with their local driver and two others in an area of Nimroz province where there has been a rash of Taliban attacks.
Earlier Nimroz governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad told Reuters the Taliban had not contacted Afghan authorities and he did not know the motive for the abductions.
About 200 police were searching for the five.
Terre d'Enfance focuses on education and other projects for children in Nimroz, a thinly populated desert region wedged between Iran and Helmand, the southern province that produces most of Afghanistan's opium.
