'Aid women killed' in Afghanistan

Aid women killed' in Afghanistan

Three women thought to be international aid workers been shot dead along with their Afghan driver in the south of the capital, Kabul, officials say.

Police say a second Afghan driver was hurt when unidentified gunmen fired on the two cars the group were travelling in through central Lowgar province.

The nationalities of the women are not known yet. It is also not clear who the three may have worked for.

Aid agencies say they are frequently targeted in the Afghan conflict.

An Afghan interior ministry spokesman said all three women were foreigners.

He said he believed they were aid workers, but did not identify their nationality or which organisation they were working for.

The provincial police chief said a vehicle carrying armed men had fired on the group. The bodies have been taken to the governor's compound in the Lowgar capital, Puli Alam.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead, in Kabul, says Lowgar, which borders Kabul, has become increasingly violent recently. The United Nations now classifies the province as a high risk, he adds.

KABUL (AFP) - Three female international aid workers and their Afghan colleague were killed Wednesday when gunmen opened fire on their car in Logar province near Kabul, a provincial police chief told AFP.

The aid workers were driving to the capital when they came under attack from gunmen on a road near the town of Pul-i-Alam, Logar police chief Ghulam Mustafa said. A car had cut in front of them and then opened fire, he said.

"Three females, foreign nationals, and an Afghan male have been killed," he told AFP. "Police went to the site and evacuated their bodies."

The provincial governor, Abdullah Wardak, confirmed the incident.

"Three women ... and an Afghan man have been killed. They were coming from Gardez and it happened along the road," he said.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary also said "three foreign nationals and a man have been killed by unknown gunmen in an area just outside Pul-i-Alam."

The international group said to employ the four could not be reached for confirmation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident, the deadliest in years involving international aid workers.

Taliban insurgents regularly carry out attacks across the country but bandits and other criminals are also behind a growing wave of violence.

Aid workers said in a report this month that 19 aid workers had been killed in Afghanistan this year with spreading insecurity cutting back relief work.

"Aid organisations and their staff have been subject to increasing attacks, threats and intimidation, by both insurgent and criminal groups," the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief said in a statement on August 1.

"This year there have been over 84 such incidents, including 21 in June, more than in any other month in the last six years.

"So far this year 19 NGO staff have been killed, which already exceeds the total number of NGO workers killed last year."