Two German engineers kidnapped Wednesday in Afghanistan have been murdered by their Taliban abductors (via Fox News):

A purported Taliban spokesman said the hardline militia on Saturday shot and killed two German hostages because Germany's government didn't announce that its troops would leave Afghanistan.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the Germans were shot to death. They had been kidnapped on Wednesday, along with five Afghan colleagues, in the southern province of Wardak while working on a dam project.

"The German and Afghan governments didn't meet our conditions, they didn't pull out their troops," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Ahmadi offered no proof for the claim of the killings; he said the Taliban would give further information about the two bodies later.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government would not negotiate with the Taliban. Neither would she withdraw German troops from Afghanistan.

'We can't give up on our efforts now. The Afghan people must not be left in the lurch,' Merkel said in the interview printed by the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper in southern Germany.

She said a Foreign Ministry crisis team was working very hard to obtain the hostages' release, adding, 'In the interests of those affected, I cannot say more than that.'

Germany has about 3000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, most are engaged in reconstruction projects such as digging wells. The two civilian engineers were working on a dam project in Wardak province. There is no word so far on the fate of 6 Afghan colleagues kidnapped with them on Wednesday.

UPDATE: 5 Afghans Hostages Also Killed Via AP:

A purported Taliban spokesman said the hard-line militia killed two German and five Afghan hostages on Saturday but said the militants were willing to release 22 South Korean Christians in exchange for the freedom of imprisoned Taliban fighters.

The Afghan government, however, said it had contradictory information concerning the Germans, casting doubt on the purported spokesman's claims.

A contradictory report from the AFP:

An Afghan foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday that one Taliban-held German hostage is alive and that a second had died of a heart attack, denying claims that militants had killed both.

"According to information from Afghan security organisations, one of the hostages died of a heart attack and the second is still alive," said ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen. "Efforts for his release continue."

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