Three women aid workers killed in Afghan ambush

MILITANTS brandishing assault rifles ambushed a US relief organisation’s vehicle south of Kabul, killing three Western aid workers and their Afghan driver and leaving their white SUV riddled with hundreds of bullets, officials said.

The three women killed in Logar province worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee, said Melissa Winkler, a spokeswoman for the group. One was a dual American-Trinidadian citizen, one was Canadian and the third was a dual British-Canadian citizen.

Five gunmen armed with assault rifles stepped out of a small village area and fired at the IRC vehicles, said Abdullah Khan, the deputy counter-terrorism director in Logar, citing an Afghan IRC employee injured in the attack who was travelling in a second vehicle. Khan said the women’s vehicle, a white SUV, was hit by hundreds of bullets. It had stickers on the side of the vehicle saying IRC.

Dr Mir Mabub Shah said all four bodies had multiple bullet wounds.

The women were travelling from the eastern city of Gardez to Kabul when they were attacked.