| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Seven mine clearing staff shot dead in Afghanistan |
| 2008-03-25 |
| 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 |
| #7 Is it required that the deminers be unarmed? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-25 22:32 |
| #6 These deminers are all Afghans paid by international orgs. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-03-25 11:07 |
| #5 Cambodia has the largest population of one legged people thanks to Pol Pot and Jane Fonda. |
| Posted by: bman 2008-03-25 11:07 |
| #4 If the perps are caught, drop 'em in the middle of a mine field and tell 'em to find their own way out. If the make it, shoot them dead... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-03-25 10:57 |
| #3 Just the sort of targets the Lions prefer. Unarmed work teams, who can only try to flee before they're wiped out. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-03-25 08:58 |
| #2 UN personnel getting Killed? Look for an immediate UN withdrawal. (That's their MO, other people get killed, not the UN "Peacekeepers") |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-03-25 07:44 |
| #1 This kind of attack must really win the hearts and minds of the population. Afghanistan must have about the highest proportion of one-legged kids in the world already. |
| Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-03-25 07:35 |