Aid workers in Afghanistan were abandoning the western city of Heart today after rioters burned their offices and fought with security forces over President Hamid Karzai’s sacking of its warlord governor.

A powerful explosion wrecked an office of an American security house in Kabul today, killing up to six people, officials said.

Two Turkish engineers and an Afghan have been kidnapped outside Kabul, an official said today, bringing to five the number of workers who have been taken hostage in Afghanistan in the past three days.