By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan are being held in small groups nine villages of Ghazni Province and have been moved to different places frequently, the director of the country's spy agency said Wednesday.
In a meeting with lawmakers of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee in Seoul, Kim Man-bok, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said the hostages were kidnapped by the ``Abdullah Group'' based in the Qarabagh district of the central province.
Kim said the militant group consists of 150 members and Taliban militants from Pakistan and locals are backing the group. The group is believed to be one of the hawkish among the Taliban, he added.
He said neither the Afghan government nor U.S.-led coalition forces plan to conduct rescue operations.
The government has reiterated it is opposed to any rescue operation whether conducted by U.S.-led coalition forces or Korean troops, fearing that it could cost the lives of the remaining hostages.
The Taliban have already killed two male hostages, the leader of the Christian aid group Rev. Bae Hyunf-kyu, 42, and Shim Sung-min, 29, separately.