Taliban Insurgents Kill Three Aid Workers in Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Suspected Taliban insurgents stormed the office of an Afghan relief organization early yesterday, killing three workers and wounding four police officers in a predawn shootout, officials said.
Police said six vehicles carrying about 30 gunmen raced up to the office of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan in Delaram, a town in southwestern Nimroz province, early yesterday.
“A cook, a night watchman, and another employee were asleep in the first room,” said the group’s regional head, Najamuddin Mojaddedi. “The Taliban shot them dead.”
Another watchman was missing, Mr. Mojaddedi said.
“The Taliban are just killing innocent people trying to help their country,” Mr. Mojaddedi said. “I don’t understand why they do this.”
The attack and the recently resolved kidnappings of three U.N. staffers highlight the dangers the country still faces despite landmark elections designed to bring political stability three years after the Taliban’s ouster.
Security forces that rushed to the scene yesterday fought the gunmen for about an hour. Four police officers were injured before the insurgents withdrew, deputy police chief Mohammed Rassoul said.
It was unclear if the attackers suffered any casualties.
The three fatalities were the first for aid workers in Afghanistan since August 3, when two Afghans working for the German Malteser agency died in a hail of gunfire in southeastern Paktia province.
More than 40 relief and reconstruction workers have died this year, restricting the flow of international aid to the impoverished south and east, where the rebels are strongest.
Mr. Mojaddedi said his group would decide whether to pull out of the region, where it has worked for 14 years on agricultural projects.
In Delaram, it distributes seeds on behalf of the U.N. World Food Program and builds schools and wells with the help of Dutch and Italian relief groups.