Foreign medical workers among 10 killed in Afghanistan

Foreign medical workers among 10 killed in Afghanistan

Eight foreigners and two Afghans have been found shot dead next to abandoned vehicles in the north-eastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, officials say.



confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all," he told the AFP news agency.




He later told the Associated Press they were "spying for the Americans".



The team - five American men and three American, German and British women, along with four Afghans - was working for a Christian charity, the International Assistance Mission (IAM). Its executive director, Dirk Frans, denied they were missionaries.



"That is a lie. That is not true at all. IAM is a Christian organisation, we have always been that," he told the BBC.


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If these reports are confirmed we object to this senseless killing of people who have done nothing but serve the poor”

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International Assistance Mission



Shot UK medical worker identified Badakhshan's police chief, Gen Agha Noor Kemtuz, told the Associated Press that the victims had been found dead in the district of Kuran wa Munjan, and had been stripped of their possessions.



"Nothing was left behind," he said.



Gen Kemtuz said a third Afghan man who was travelling with the group had survived.



"He told me he was shouting, reciting the holy Koran and saying: 'I am a Muslim. Don't kill me'," he added.



In a statement published on its website on Saturday, IAM said: "At this stage we do not have many details but our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who are presumed killed."



"If these reports are confirmed we object to this senseless killing of people who have done nothing but serve the poor. Some of the foreigners have worked alongside the Afghan people for decades."



"We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year," it added.