Eight foreign aid workers killed in Afghanistan

Six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German, were found dead in a remote province of northern Afghanistan, police say. On Saturday, the Taliban claimed they killed “Christian missionaries” who were lost in the forest.

A US Army soldier conducts a patrol in the province of Nuristan where the IAM team were on a aid mission before being attack by gunmen US Army

The bullet-riddled bodies of ten aid workers were found next to their abandoned vehicle on Friday, officials say. The team of aid workers was returning to Kabul after a mission in Nuristan at the invitation of the communities in the region, the Christian charity International Assistance Mission says.

IAM says it provides the majority of eye care available to Afghans, running eye hospitals in Kabul, Herat, Mazar and Kandahar.

An Afghan survivor of the attack says the team was having lunch in the forest when they were attacked by gunmen, reports RFI’s Jonathan Boone in Kabul. The gunmen stripped the aid workers of their money and possessions before executing them.

Boone says initial information about the attack suggest it was a robbery. “Although it is impossible to say exactly what the motive was, it would seem at this stage that the Taliban are opportunistically trying to take credit from an attack that does appear to be a robbery and not a political attack.”

On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they killed “Christian mercenaries”.

“Yesterday at around 8am, one of our patrols confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all,” said Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman for the Taliban.

IAM has denied the group was carrying bibles and says the victims were part of a were part of a 12-member team that included eye doctors, a dentist, a general doctor and nurses.