- KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected
Islamic militants shot dead five Afghan aid workers near Kabul on the eve
of a visit by the U.S. defense secretary, the worst such attack since the
overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
- The employees of the Serai Development Foundation, a
community project group, were approached by two armed men late on Wednesday
when their car suffered a puncture and was forced to stop on a road north
of Sarobi, 37 miles east of Kabul.
"At the beginning the staff thought they were thieves," said
Raz Mohammad Dalili, head of the foundation.
"Two gunmen told them to get out of the car, asked what their mission
was and where they were from.
"They shot the driver first and then opened fire on the others --
four of them died and three got away," he told Reuters, describing
the execution-style killing.
Two of the three people who escaped returned to Sarobi near midnight (2:30
p.m. EST), some five hours after the attack, and alerted the organization.
The third survivor spent the night in a village en route.
Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali called the attackers "criminals
and terrorists." He said, "These kind of people don't have any
place in Afghanistan (news - web sites)."
The killings came hours before the arrival in Afghanistan of Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, who discussed long-term security issues with U.S.-led
forces, international peacekeepers and President Hamid Karzai.
The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on foreign and Afghan
aid groups providing vital assistance in the war-shattered country.
Less than two weeks ago, suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead four Afghan
deminers in an ambush in the west of the country. Last year, the Taliban
said they had killed an Afghan aid worker because such people were American
agents who deserved to die.
ORGANIZATION BLAMES MILITANTS
Dalili said the assailants appeared to be Islamic militants from one of
three groups -- the Taliban, al Qaeda or forces loyal to renegade warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The guerrillas have been blamed for many attacks since early August that
have claimed more than 550 lives, undermined reconstruction efforts and
threatened to delay June elections.
During a news conference with Rumsfeld, Karzai said people should resist
automatically blaming the Taliban and al Qaeda, saying banditry was often
behind violence.
Dalili said the Serai Development Foundation, working in Afghanistan for
14 years, would be forced to suspend operations around Sarobi until adequate
security was provided. It employs some 550 people in six provinces.
Barbara Stapleton, advocacy officer of the Agency Coordinating Body for
Afghan Relief, said Wednesday's was the worst single attack since U.S.-led
forces overthrew the Taliban, and it showed the urgent need to boost provincial
security.
"This is an extremely serious incident which is very, very shocking
to the NGO community," she said. "It is extremely worrying and
tragic."
-
-
Stapleton said the attacks showed the security policy of the United States
and its allies -- stationing small, joint civilian military Provincial
Reconstruction Teams (PRT) around the country, rather than large bodies
of peacekeepers -- was flawed.
-
- "This is very worrying in the lead-up to elections
that seem to be being pushed ahead come what may in a society which is
highly militarized and in which a security vacuum exists."
-
- The Taliban sees aid workers as legitimate targets in
its "jihad," or holy war, against foreign forces in Afghanistan
and has warned Afghans not to participate in the elections. (Additional
reporting by David Brunnstrom)
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