KHOST: Unknown gunmen believed to be Taliban insurgents kidnapped an Afghan demining team that includes two doctors in a remote village in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

The team from the Afghan Technical Consultants non-governmental organisation was snatched at gunpoint on Thursday about 80 kilometres south of Kabul, the director of the organisation said.

“Thirteen of our staff have been kidnapped,” director Kefayatullah Eblagh said in Kabul.

The team included two doctors and eight mine clearers, as well as drivers and assistants.

He could not say who took the men. Villagers in the area in the eastern Paktia province reported seeing the group being driven off by unknown gunmen.

Din Mohammad Darivish, a spokesman for the local administration, said that Taliban insurgents were likely to have kidnapped the mine clearers.—AFP