Official: 3 Western women killed in Afghan attack

[August 13, 2008]  PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan (AP) -- A militant ambush of a U.S. aid organization's vehicle Wednesday killed an American aid worker along with a British-Canadian and a Trinidadian colleague, officials said.

The three women who worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee were attacked in Logar, one province south of Kabul, said Abdullah Khan, the deputy counterterrorism director in Logar. The women's Afghan driver was also killed, said Khan.

Melissa Winkler, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee, said the group was in the process of alerting family members and would issue a statement soon.

Winkler said the women were an American, a dual British-Canadian citizen and a Trinidad citizen. Earlier, an Afghan police official had said the women were American, Canadian and Irish.

At Logar province's Pul-e-Alam hospital, Dr. Mir Mabub Shah said all four bodies had multiple bullet wounds.

Three female Afghan nurses were covering the three victims in a white cloth shroud as they placed them in wooden coffins.

The attack was carried out by five gunmen brandishing assault rifles who stepped out of a small village area and fired at the IRC vehicles on the main road, said Khan, citing an Afghan who was also wounded in the attack.

Khan said the IRC vehicle, a white SUV, was riddled with hundreds of bullets. It had stickers on the side of the vehicle saying IRC. The women were traveling from the eastern city of Gardez to Kabul when they were attacked, he said.

The International Rescue Committee provides emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights and post-conflict development in countries around the world, according to its Web site.

Two Afghan IRC staff members were shot and killed in Logar in July 2007 while driving to work on the National Solidarity Program, a government-led program that carries out development projects.

The IRC said in July that it was carrying out projects at reduced levels despite the deteriorating security situation, in Afghanistan.

At least 19 staff from aid organizations in Afghanistan have been killed in militant attacks in 2008, compared with 15 killed in all of 2007, according to a recent report from ANSO, a security group that works for aid organizations in the country.

It said 2008 was on track to be the deadliest year for aid workers in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban.

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On the Net:

The International Rescue Committee: http://www.theirc.org/

[Associated Press; By AMIR SHAH]

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