Taleban release Red Cross workers

Taleban insurgents in Afghanistan have freed four Red Cross workers who were kidnapped on Wednesday.

The international Red Cross says the four - two Afghans and two foreigners - were released unconditionally.

They were seized in Wardak province, west of the capital, Kabul. A Taleban leader later said his men had captured them by mistake.

The workers had been trying to secure the release of a German national seized by the Taleban in July.

A police official told the Associated Press news agency that the four - one of whom is from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and one Burmese - were in good health.

Kidnappings have soared in Afghanistan in recent months, where foreign and Afghan troops are battling the Taleban.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working in Afghanistan for 20 years. The operation is one of the organisation's biggest, with more than 1,000 Afghan and international staff.