Taliban militants abducted 150 construction workers and three drivers in western Afghanistan bordering Iran Sunday, reports quoting officials said.
The laborers, working for a construction company building an army base in the southwestern province of Farah, were traveling in three buses when the militants kidnapped them, provincial governor Roh-Ul Ameen told reporters.
The workers and their drivers were kidnapped in the Bara Boluk area, close to the Iranian border.
"We are trying through tribal elders to secure their release," he added.
Kidnappings are frequently carried out in Afghanistan but Sunday's incident was the largest mass abduction so far.
And Monday, nine Talibans were killed and three policemen wounded in clashes in Farah's neighboring province of Nimruz.
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