The depraved Taliban holy warriors have been on a kidnapping spree, and today they claimed to have murdered two German hostages—but the Afghan government says they’re lying. Hard to know who to trust less.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban spokesman said the hard-line militia killed two German hostages on Saturday because Germany didn’t announce a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Afghan government, however, said one of the Germans died of a heart attack and that the second was still alive.

South Korea’s government, meanwhile, attempted to win the release of at least 18 Korean Christians, including 15 women, kidnapped in the same region on Thursday.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to be a Taliban spokesman, said fighters had fatally shot the Germans, who were 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 of the killings and said the Taliban would give further information about the two bodies later.