British worker shot dead in Afghanistan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-08 17:13

Gunmen shot and killed a Briton who worked with Afghanistan's development ministry in a nighttime attack in downtown Kabul, police said Tuesday.

Two vehicles, one of them a black landcruiser, followed the British man's pickup truck then drove ahead of him and blocked his way, Gen. Sher Agha, a Kabul police commander, said.

An Afghan worker sweeps a road in front of shelled buildings in Kabul. A British man working as an advisor to the Afghan government has been shot dead in a drive-by attack in the embassy district of the capital Kabul. [AFP/File]

From inside the landcruiser, an unidentified gunman opened fire, killing the man, before driving away, he said.

The attack happened about 10.15 p.m. Monday in front of the main guest house for U.N. workers in Kabul and the Dutch Embassy, he said. Agha did not name the victim.

The British Embassy could not immediately confirm the incident.

Agha said police were investigating the shooting.

U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva confirmed that a foreign national had been shot dead late Monday in Kabul, but said he was not U.N. personnel.

Since holding its first direct presidential elections in October, Afghanistan has enjoyed a period of relative calm, marked by a decline in attacks by Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents that have plagued restive areas of the south and east.

But in November, three foreign election workers were kidnapped in Kabul by a Taliban splinter group. They were released unharmed a month later.

In December, a Turkish engineer working on a U.S.-sponsored road project was kidnapped and killed by unidentified kidnappers in eastern Kunar province.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Draft Anti-Secession Law explained to NPC deputies         Top legislature accepts Jiang's resignation         Listings of two big State banks imminent         Experts split over gambling law proposal         Time needed for Chinese women into space         Super-bridge project given green light	Boeing fires CEO for affair with executive       Dominican Republic prison fire kills 134       Syrian troops begin pullback in Lebanon       U.S. shootings strain ties with Iraq allies       Palestinians to control West Bank town       Vatican expects Pope home by Palm Sunday