9 Killed in Afghan War Attacks, Including 2 German Soldiers, British Missionary, 5 Afghani Children, Taliban Fighter

Suicide attack kills 2 NATO soldier in N Afghanistan

www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-20 20:14:53  

    KABUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) --

Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and five children were killed in a suicide attack in northern Afghan province of Kunduz on Monday, said an ISAF statement.

    "In addition, the attacked also wounded one ISAF soldier and one civilian nearby," it added.

    However, it did not disclose any further information saying "it is ISAF policy not to release the nationality of any casualty prior to the relevant national authority doing so."

    Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahed, the purported Taliban spokesman took responsibility for the attack saying the outfit carried out that suicide attack against German troops in Chardara district of Kunduz province at around 2 p.m. local time (0930 GMT) inflicting great casualties on the troops.

    There are around 3,500 German troops being deployed in relatively peaceful northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Badakhshan.

    War attacks between NATO occupation forces and Taliban resistance fighters left more than 4,500 people dead so far this year in Afghanistan while Taliban fighters recently vowed to intensify assaults against interests of Afghan government and (NATO occupation forces) before the coming winter.

Editor: Jiang Yuxia

British woman aid worker killed in Afghan capital

Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:26am EDT

By Jonathon Burch

KABUL, Oct 20 (Reuters) -

Two Taliban gunmen on a motorcycle killed a British woman aid worker in the Afghan capital on Monday, accusing her of spreading Christian propaganda. Taliban fighters have increasingly targeted aid workers this year in their campaign to spread an atmosphere of fear and undermine claims by the Afghan government and its Western backers that they are bringing security to the war-ravaged nation.

"She was walking to work this morning. There were two people on a motorcycle. They got off the motorcycle and shot her and then went away on the motorcycle. She was dead pretty soon afterwards," said Mark Lyth, the board chairman of SERVE Afghanistan, the aid agency which employed the woman.

"We have no possible motivation for this other than, I suppose, what's happening in Afghanistan at the moment. I can only guess it was part of the Taliban offensive," he told Reuters by telephone from Britain.

SERVE Afghanistan is a British-based Christian aid organisation that focuses on community development and education and vocational training for people with disabilities.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. "We killed her for spreading Christian propaganda," Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, told Reuters by telephone.

The British Foreign Office named the woman as Gayle Williams. The British embassy in Kabul said it was still checking if Williams was also of South African origin or had dual South African citizenship, a spokeswoman said.

Afghan officials said the woman was from South Africa.

More than 120 attacks were carried out on aid programmes during the first seven months of this year, the United Nations says. As a result 30 aid workers were killed and 92 were abducted.

Taliban fighters killed three female aid workers and their Afghan driver in an ambush just outside Kabul in August, the bloodiest single attack on foreign humanitarian workers in Afghanistan in recent years.

Rising violence has already forced aid agencies to restrict humanitarian work at a time when drought and high prices are putting more people under pressure. (Additional reporting by Yousuf Azimy; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Alex Richardson)