2 dead, 1 kidnapped in Kabul hostel raid
Print Edition
A German aid worker and an Afghan guard were killed and a Finnish woman kidnapped as gunmen stormed an international guest house in central Kabul.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack late Saturday on the guest house run by Swedish charity Operation Mercy.
In further violence embroiling the country, 20 Afghan policemen were killed yesterday when Taliban fighters stormed their outposts in the southern province of Zabul, as the insurgents escalate their annual spring offensive.
“At the moment, the identity of the kidnappers in not known. Finland urges immediate release of the kidnapped person,” the Finnish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The kidnapping of foreigners has been on the rise, but the threat of abductions is even greater for Afghans.
Kabul is plagued by criminal gangs who stage abductions for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy locals, and sometimes handing them over to insurgent groups.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated attack in Zabul’s Shah Joy district, where 20 policemen were killed and 15 injured.
Insurgents also mounted rocket attacks on the governor’s office, the police headquarters and an army brigade in the provincial capital Qalat.
Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in violence in recent years.
Judith D’Souza, a 40-year-old Indian employee of the Aga Khan Foundation, was rescued last July a month after she was abducted in central Kabul, while Katherine Jane Wilson, an Australian NGO worker, kidnapped in April last year near the border with Pakistan, was released in March this year.
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