Afghanistan

Two foreigners killed in Kabul shootout, Bangladeshi aid-workers kidnapped

Article published on the 2008-10-25 Latest update 2008-10-25 10:37 TU

Police at the site of the attack
(Photo: Reuters)

Two foreign nationals have been killed in a shooting incident in Kabul, according to Afghan police and witnesses. In eastern Ghazni province two Bangladeshis working for the largest foreign development agency in the country have been kidnapped. US officials on Friday hailed progress in the fight against opium production but condemned a 20-year jail sentence on a young journalist for blasphemy.

The Kabul attack is the second fatal shooting in the city in a week. On Monday a foreign aid worker was shot dead. Foreigners are rarely killed in Kabul, although there have been several kidnappings.

The exchange of fire took place outside the offices of the internatoinal courier company, DHL. Police say that two of the dead were killed in a four-wheel drive, just after they left the office and got into the vehicle.

The Afghan is reported to be a security guard and another official says that the foreigners had argued with their guards.

Two Bangladeshis and two Turks have become the latest victims of a series of kidnappings in Afghanistan.

The governor of Khost province, in the east, says that two Turkish nationals were kidnapped on Thrusday along with their Afghan driver and translator.

The Bangladeshis' employer, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (Brac), works in education, health and micro-credit, largely with poor women, and is the biggest private charity working in Afghanistan since 2002.

The White House's anti-drugs czar, John Walters, on Friday made public US estimates that opium poppy cultivation fell 22 per cent compared to 2006, following two years of record production.

The number of poppy-free provinces has risen from 15 to 18 of the country's 34 provinces, he said.

But the White House declared it was "disturbed" by the 20-year jail sentence on Perwiz Kambakhsh, who had faced the death penalty.

A Kabul appeal court on Tuesday reduced the sentence but upheld the sentence on the 24-year-old journalist and student, who has already been in prison a year for "insulting Islam", after circulating material from an Iranian website on the status of women.

"I think that Afghanistan has a long way to go. They do have a fragile democracy," said White House spokesperson Dana Perino, citing a report of a Taliban attack on a bus this week, which reportedly cost up to 30 lives.