Polish, Afghan forces free 11 hostages from the Taliban

WARSAW, Poland — Polish and Afghan special forces, backed by U.S. air power, freed 11 people who had been taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Poland’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said on Tuesday.

The hostages included two solders, four police officers and five civilians, all of them Afghan nationals who had been held captive for four months in a prison in a village controlled by the Taliban, Macierewicz told a news conference in Warsaw.

“These people were beaten, tortured, treated terribly for four months,” he said.

He said the action was a “great success,” and showed that the Afghan forces are well trained and able to “combat terrorists.”