Taliban say they hold foreigners from helicopter

KABUL: Taliban insurgents said Monday they were holding a group of foreigners taken captive after a helicopter made an emergency landing in eastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban, in a statement on their website, claimed they taken 11 US military personnel. They "were captured alive and were then transferred to the most secure region of the nation", it said.

The militants routinely make exaggerated claims and officials have said the foreigners were Turkish and Russian civilian workers and numbered up to nine. (AFP)