U.S. Woman Among Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan
U.S. aid organization's vehicle attacked by suspected Taliban militants.
LONDON, August 13, 2008 — -- Three foreign women, including an American, were killed in an ambush of international aid workers in Afghanistan today, Afghan officials said.
Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province south of Kabul where the incident took place, told Reuters that the women and their driver were travelling towards Kabul when they were attacked with small-arms fire from another car.
The women worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC). Following the attack, the IRC announced in a statement to ABC News that it "has suspended its humanitarian aid programs in Afghanistan indefinitely."
A spokesperson for the IRC told ABC News that the attack killed a woman described as an American/Trinidadian. It wasn't clear whether the woman had dual citizenship. Also killed in the ambush was a Canadian woman and a woman described as having British/Canadian citizenship. The women's Afghan driver was also killed and another Afghan driver was critically wounded.
The IRC told ABC News that the women were traveling to Kabul in a clearly marked IRC vehicle when they came under fire, suggesting that the aid workers were clearly targeted and not victims of a random assault.
Wardak told Reuters that the ambush was carried out "by the opposition forces" in Afghanistan, a phrase often used to describe Taliban militants.
The attack is 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.
Three district IRC offices have been attacked and destroyed since March, the IRC Web site said. Two Afghans working for IRC were killed in an ambush, also in Logar province, in July 2007.
In a statement released to ABC News, IRC President George Rupp said, "We are stunned and profoundly saddened by this tragic loss."
"These extraordinary individuals were deeply committed to aiding the people of Afghanistan, especially the children who have seen so much strife."
The IRC has been working in Afghanistan for 20 years, providing emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights and post-conflict development in countries around the world, according to its Web site.
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