Four Afghans working to remove land mines were shot dead by suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda assailants pursuing them in a car in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said. The governor of Farah Province, where the incident occurred, said he was sure the killings were the work of Taliban or Al Qaeda because the assailants did not take the mine-removal workers’ money or belongings. The governor, Abdul Hai Neamati, said by telephone, "In Farah it is the second attack by the enemy." He called the attack on these workers "cowardly."
| It's kind of their hallmark, isn't it? |
"All over Afghanistan, the enemy want to destabilize, destroy the security and create chaos; this is their goal," he added.
| That's because it's so much easier to break than it is to make... |
A spokesman for the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan confirmed that the victims were staff workers from the Afghan mine removal agency, Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Reconstruction. They had been traveling back to the western town of Herat from a supply trip to their teams working in Farar Province, in southwestern Afghanistan. The spokesman, Patrick Fruchet, said he did not know who the attackers were. "We do not know if they were Taliban or Al Qaeda, but it has shocked all our staff workers," he said. Three of the men who died were from Herat and one was from Kabul, he said. The wounded man died on the way to hospital, the governor said. The attack follows a shooting of census officials from Central Statistics Office in Farah in November in which one man was killed and another wounded, the governor said. |