WASHINGTON (CNN) --More than three months after being detained by the Taliban, eight Western aid workers were flown from Afghanistan to Pakistan by U.S. military helicopters, U.S. officials told CNN on Wednesday. All were reported in good condition.

The aid workers -- four Germans, two Americans and two Australians -- had been detained by the Taliban since early August on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
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Bush said the rescue had been "facilitated on the ground" and that the International Red Cross participated in some manner. "I am really proud of our armed forces, and I am also thankful for the folks in Afghanistan who helped with this rescue."

Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the International Red Cross in Islamabad, Pakistan, said a local military commander in Ghazni, about 90 miles southwest of Kabul, contacted Red Cross officials in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

"(He) told them that he had rescued the eight SNI (Shelter Now International) people and asked for help to arrange for their transportation," Barrat said, explaining that the IRC facilitated communications between the governments of the detainees and the local military commander.
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The eight aid workers had been [held captive] by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers since early August. They are members of Shelter Now International, a German relief agency that provided food and homes to the poor of Afghanistan.

There has been no word on the fate of 16 Afghan Muslims who worked for the aid agency and were arrested at the same time.

One U.S. official said the Taliban handed the eight aid workers over to a non-governmental organization, apparently the International Red Cross, which then contacted the U.S. military. The special forces were flown in. The forces did not encounter gunfire or hostile Taliban, the official said.

Bush said he had considered a previous rescue mission when the aid workers were detained in Kabul.
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