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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Afghan aid workers slain

Amir Shah Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan – Two Afghan relief workers were found shot to death on the side of a remote southern desert road, officials said Wednesday, a reminder of the dangers facing reconstruction efforts more than three years after the fall of the Taliban.

Health Minister Mohammed Amin Fatemi said robbers or militants could be responsible for killing two health workers in Helmand province, a former Taliban stronghold and now a center of Afghanistan’s booming narcotics industry.

“They were brutally murdered by the enemies of the Afghan nation,” Fatemi told the Associated Press. The dead men – Mohammed Nader and Mohammed Zaher – “are our martyrs and our heroes,” he said.

Mullah Hakim Latifi, a purported spokesman for the Taliban who has claimed responsibility for past attacks on aid workers, told the AP in a phone call that he knew nothing about the latest assault.

Officials said gunmen stopped the sport utility vehicle carrying the two men who worked for Ibn Sina, an Afghan relief group, in a desert area of Helmand’s Sangin district, 220 miles southwest of Kabul.

Ikramuddin, an Ibn Sina official who goes by one name, said the men were on their way back from delivering medical supplies to clinics across the province.

The minister said the men were forced from the car and shot in the head. Their vehicle has not been found.

It was not immediately clear when the attack took place. The minister said the attack occurred Friday, but Helmand government spokesman Mohammed Wali said he believed it happened Tuesday.

Helmand is a former stronghold of the Taliban movement and has seen a steady string of attacks on aid workers as well as American and Afghan security forces partly blamed on followers of the ousted hardline militia.

More than 40 aid and reconstruction workers were killed nationwide last year – most recently three Afghans killed in a nighttime attack on their compound in southwestern Afghanistan in November.

Because of the security risks, aid organizations have declared much of the country’s south and east out of bounds, though some have continued to operate, using public transportation and leaving satellite telephones at home to avoid attracting attention. The restrictions have set back progress in rebuilding Afghanistan, which is recovering from a quarter-century of war.