The remaining 21 South Korean hostages were alive on Wednesday after another Taliban deadline expired, an Afghan official said, adding the army had dropped leaflets warning of an assault to rescue them.
"The hostages are alive," said Khowja Seddiqi, district chief of Qarabagh, in Ghazni province, where the 23 Christian volunteers were abducted nearly two weeks ago by the Taliban."The national army has dropped leaflets through helicopters telling people in several districts to evacuate their houses because it wants to launch an operation," he told Reuters.
The defence ministry could not be reached immediately for comment.
Earlier the ministry said the Afghan National Army had launched an operation in Ghazni, but insisted it was "routine" and was not linked with the kidnapping.
The head of the Afghan government team tasked with trying secure the release of the hostages has not ruled out use of force to end their ordeal.
The Taliban could not be immediately be contacted. The movement has repeatedly said that any use of force would jeopardise the lives of the remaining hostages.
Earlier in the day, a Taliban spokesman said the group was expecting to hear from Afghan mediators over its demand for the government to release rebel prisoners, but insisted some of the hostages would be killed if that demand was not met by 0730 GMT.
The Afghan government has said that giving in to rebel demands would only encourage more kidnapping.
The hostages' desperate relatives, keeping an agonising vigil in Seoul, appealed to the U.S. government to intervene. South Korean lawmakers also made a joint appeal to Washington to act.
The Taliban spokesman said two women among the 21 Koreans were now seriously ill.
"The majority of the hostages are ill, but two females are seriously ill and there is this possibility that they may die," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
He said the pair suffered from an unknown illness and the Taliban did not have the right medicines to treat them.
