Taliban and South Korea strike a deal?

For at least 8 of the 19 hostages, the six week ordeal is finally over.

The Taliban backed down from its steadfast demand for a prisoner exchange and settled instead for a reaffirmation of pledges from Korea that it would withdraw its troops at year's end and prevent  Christian missionaries from working in the country. So no new concessions here--though, of course, 11 hostages still remain. The Taliban say they will release all of the hostages over the next few days.

This raises an interesting question: why did the Taliban cave in? Was a side deal cut with unpublished concessions from Korea? Are they facing infighting and popular dissent over the kidnapping, as some reports have suggested? Or is the release of these eight prisoners meant as a "show of good faith" to pave the way for a second deal with the Korean or Afghan government?

Taliban release 8 South Korean Hostages. QALA-E-KAZI, Afghanistan (AP) By Amir Shah: Taliban militants on Wednesday released eight of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly six-week hostage crisis...The first group of three women were released in the village of Qala-e-Kazi. Several hours later, four women and one man were released in a desert close to Shah Baz, said the reporter, who witnessed both hand-overs. None of the eight said anything to reporters. MORE                                 

The three women arrived in Qala-E-Kazi in a single car, their heads covered with red and green shawls. Red Cross officials quickly took the three to their vehicles before leaving for the office of the Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni, witnesses said. In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said the three, who he identified as Ahn Hye-jin, Lee Jung-ran and Han Ji-young, did not appear to have any health problems.

To secure the release of the church workers, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge it made well before the hostage crisis began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. Seoul also said it would prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working in the country, something it already promised to do. The Taliban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange.

The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 hostages as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on July 19. In late July, the militants executed two male hostages, and they released two women earlier this month. The insurgents have said they will free all the hostages, who they are holding in different locations, over the next few days.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, welcomed the news of a deal and called for all the hostages to be freed quickly.

He said he used "all possible efforts" as secretary-general to help obtain the release of the hostages, talking to leaders in Afghanistan and the region who might have influence.

"I welcome that news that both the Korean government and Taliban representatives have agreed to release the remaining 19 hostages," he said.

The Tuesday deal was made in face-to-face talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean diplomats in the central Afghan city of Ghazni. The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which were facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross...