Afghan official: Kidnapped German aid worker rescued

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says a German aid worker kidnapped more than a month ago in northern Afghanistan has been freed.

Sawar Husseini, spokesman for the Kunduz province police chief, says the man, whose name has not been made public, was rescued in a police operation early Friday morning.

The man works for the German development agency GIZ and is believed to have disappeared while driving across the province in April, Husseini says.

Northern Afghanistan has become increasingly dangerous in recent months and Kunduz has been besieged by insurgents who in late April surrounded the capital, also called Kunduz, and came close to overrunning it.

Germany has had a security and development presence in northern Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban regime from power.