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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

AFGHANISTAN: NGO continues operating despite armed attack

KABUL, 6 May 2003 (IRIN) - Following an armed attack on a vehicle of the Afghan Development Agency (ADA), in which one ADA staff member was killed and another injured, in central Afghanistan on Saturday, the NGO said it would continue activities despite the incident.

"It was a shocking and tragic occurrence; however, we will continue to deliver relief and development services in all our regions," Abdul Raziq Samadi, the director of ADA, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul, on Monday.

The incident took place at 19:00 local time in the Seyyedabad District of the central Vardak Province on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway. "A group of unknown armed men started shooting at the vehicle from both sides of the road when they realised it was an aid agency vehicle with a sign on the bonnet and an NGO green number plate," the director said, noting that the driver was killed instantly and another person in the back of the vehicle seriously injured.

According to ADA, the aid agency vehicle had been specifically targeted, while local people said the assailants were believed to be local remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. "There were many other vehicles on the road, but they attacked our car when they saw the logo of the NGO," Samadi said.

Reuters reported on Monday that Afghan police had arrested eight suspects from the Hezb-i-Islami faction of renegade warlord Guldbuddin Hekmatyar in connection with the killing. Hekmatyar has called for a jihad or holy war against US forces in Afghanistan. His forces have been connected with a number of attacks on aid workers and coalition forces this year.

The United Nations in Kabul has expressed regret at the attack, and announced that all UN movements between Kabul and the central town of Ghazni had been suspended until a security assessment is conducted. There have been a series of attacks on aid workers in Afghanistan in recent weeks. An International Committee of the Red Cross delegate was murdered in the south in March.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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