August 8, 2010 12:15 PM
Terrorists: Taliban kill medical team - 6 Americans, 4 others
Tell me again all religions are the same and equally worthy of respect:
6 Americans on medical team killed in Afghanistan
Aug 7, 9:28 AM (ET)By KATHY GANNON
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Ten members of a medical team, including six Americans, were shot and killed by militants as they were returning from providing eye treatment and other health care in remote villages in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the team said Saturday.
Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said one German, one Briton and two Afghans also were part of the team that made the three-week trip to Nuristan province. They drove to the province, left their vehicles and hiked for hours with pack horses over mountainous terrain to reach the Parun valley in the province's northwest.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity."
Frans said the International Assistance Mission, the longest serving nongovernmental organization operating in Afghanistan, is registered as a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize.
"This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," the charity said in a statement. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year."
The team, made up of doctors, nurses and logistics personnel, was attacked as it was returning to Kabul after the two-week mission in Nuristan, Frans said. They had decided to travel through Badakhshan province to return to the capital because they thought it would be the safest route, Frans said.
Among the dead was team leader Tom Little, an optometrist from Delmar, New York, who has been working in Afghanistan for more than 30 years, Frans said. Another relief organization, Bridge Afghanistan, said on its website that the group included one of its members, Dr. Karen Woo of London.
Read more at MyWay
International Assistance Mission
Analysis from Christian Science Monitor:
International Assistance Mission slayings: part of Taliban war strategyBy Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / August 7, 2010
The execution-style killings of 10 people working for a Christian medical team in a remote region of northern Afghanistan fit into Taliban insurgents' stated shift in tactics: Target Western civilians, especially Christians, as "foreign invaders."
The Taliban took credit for one of the deadliest attacks yet on aid workers in Afghanistan, saying the Christian charity workers were proselytizing to poor villagers - a charge that the International Assistance Mission, which dispatched the team, denies.
The bodies of six Americans, a Briton, a German, and two Afghan interpreters were discovered Friday in a forested part of Badakhshan Province in remote northern Afghanistan - until now considered a relatively peaceful region known mostly to adventure travelers. The only person in the party not killed was a local translator who offered proof he was a Muslim by quoting the Koran, according to the Associated Press.
The attack represents the largest single toll of American civilian deaths in Afghanistan since December, when a suicide bomber killed seven members of a CIA team. It also points to the operational viability of Taliban insurgents' stated intent to target foreign aid workers as combatants.
"There has been a rise in politically motivated attacks" against aid workers, according to a 2008 roundup of aid worker deaths by Change.org, a Web consortium of social justice groups. "Many rebel and insurgent groups no longer see humanitarian workers as neutral or independent." After killing four aid workers in 2008, the Taliban issued a statement saying their group was working for "foreign invader forces," according to Change.org.
The International Assistance Mission has operated under kings, warlords, and the Taliban since it began its work in Afghanistan in 1966, making it the longest-serving nongovernmental organization in the country. "This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," the organization wrote on its website. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year."
Read more at CSM.
Posted in Islam issues, Terrorism | Permalink
Comments
Soo many places to help in the world...
Please leave Afganistan.
You have done your very best.
sue
Posted by: Susan Demidovich | August 8, 2010 2:16 PM
I have friends in Afghanistan. They were called by God to live and love the people there. They have reported to us that most Afghans embrace their work and the work of others. The Afghans are thankful. But, unfortunately there is an armed band of fanatics who are blinded by an enemy not of this world, who is telling them that their work is holy and just and good. These muslims are blinded and we must remember are battle is not against flesh and blood. God's church, his kingdom is spread by bringing such love as these 10 did to remote villages in Afghanistan. It is a calling. And I believe they would rather die in God's calling then disobey and be safe and alive elsewhere. So be in prayer for their families, the families still in-country.
Posted by: Barb | August 8, 2010 6:03 PM
