US aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan

Gunmen kidnapped an American aid worker and her driver as they travelled through southern Afghanistan early today, a provincial governor said.

The pair were ambushed outside the southern city of Kandahar, said Asadullah Khalid, who blamed the kidnapping on the “enemy of Islam and the enemy of Afghanistan”.

Mr Khalid said the 49-year-old American had been wearing a burqa when she was taken. She worked for the aid agency Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, he said.

The US Embassy said it had no immediate information.

Mr Khalid said the gunmen had not contacted the government or the aid organisation. He said police and intelligence officials were trying to track her down.

The group runs food-for-work, irrigation rehabilitation, healthcare and restoration projects around Kandahar, according to its website.

Several Westerners – including two German construction workers and two Italian journalists – have been kidnapped in Afghanistan in the last year, but this was the first kidnapping of an American in recent memory.

Travelling around Kandahar has become increasingly dangerous as Taliban insurgency spreads throughout southern Afghanistan. Western civilians who operate there often travel with armed guards and extreme caution. The area is rife with Taliban militants but also with criminals linked to the country’s booming opium poppy trade.