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Seven mine clearing staff shot dead in Afghanistan
Gunmen shot dead seven Afghan staff of UN-funded mine clearing teams in northern Afghanistan, their organisations said Monday, in some of the deadliest attacks on non-government workers in months.In one incident, unknown attackers halted a convoy of deminers returning from work in the province of Jawzjan on Sunday and opened fire, killing five and wounding seven, Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) said. The gunmen shot into the first vehicle and then opened fire on the others, which included an ambulance, as they turned around and sped off, director Kefayatullah Eblagh told AFP. "Three people stopped the vehicle and started shooting at them without saying anything," he said. Some of the men were able to use demining equipment to shield themselves from the barrage of bullets, Eblagh said. It was the worst attack on the company in its 18 years of operations in Afghanistan, he said. "It was terrible." Two more employees of a separate mine clearing team, the Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC), were shot dead in the northern province of Kunduz on Monday, their organisation and the United Nations said. The men -- a deminer and a driver -- were gunned down after returning from a ceremony to hand over land they had cleared of mines to a community, MDC's deputy director, named only Enyatullah, told AFP. Posted by: Fred 2008-03-25 |
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