The Taliban have kidnapped two Chinese engineers and four Afghans accompanying them in the north of the country, a local official and the Taliban said on Sunday.

“Unknown people kidnapped yesterday (Saturday) two Chinese engineers along with their two local drivers and two guards in Qaysar district, Faryab province,” said local government spokesman Jawaed Bidar.

Bidar said the engineers were helping to build a road.

Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said that “Our mujahedeen have taken two Chinese engineers, their two drivers and their two guards.”

Ahmadi said the Taliban’s Islamic court or shura would decide on their fate.

Criminal gangs and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led operation to topple the Taliban.

The Taliban two weeks ago denied that they were holding two journalists from France 3 public television who were snatched with three Afghan assistants in the eastern province of Kapisa on December 30.

In October, 12 public works employees were kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan as part of what the authorities called a “private dispute.”