ICRC says seized aid workers in western Afghanistan freed

ZURICH (Reuters) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said five Afghan staff members kidnapped last week in the country’s western province of Herat were released unharmed on Wednesday.

“Our five colleagues are free,” Monica Zanarelli, head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, said in a statement emailed to Reuters in Zurich. “They are in good health and have been reunited with their families, which was the most important thing for us.”

The staff were abducted by a local armed group on Aug. 14.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)