Americans among 10 killed in northern Afghanistan

[cory777]

Source: AP

KABUL, Afghanistan – Two Americans, six other foreigners and two Afghan interpreters were killed by gunmen in an ambush in a remote, forested area of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan, a police official said Saturday.

Provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz said the victims, who had been shot, were found Friday next to three bullet-riddled four-wheel drive vehicles in Kuran Wa Munjan district.

He said one of the Americans was an eye doctor working in Afghanistan. The nationalities of the other six foreigners — three men and three women — has not been confirmed. The two Afghan men were from Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces, Kemtuz said.

The U.S. Embassy said "several American citizens" were among the deceased.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100807/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

---

http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[Elmore Furth]

1. Foreign medical workers among 10 killed in Afghanistan

Source: BBC News

Eight foreigners and two Afghans have been found shot dead next to abandoned, bullet-riddled vehicles in north-eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

The dead are believed to be six Americans, one Briton and a German who worked for a charity providing eye care and medical help.

The local police chief says robbery may have been the motive for the attack.

A spokesman for the charity, the International Assistance Mission, said he was still awaiting formal identification of the victims, but that their families had been informed.





Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10900338

[Turborama]

2. I just saw on Al Jazeera English that the Taliban have admitted they murdered the aid workers

The reporter also said they were working for a charity that has been giving medical aid in Afghanistan since 1966.

I'll add an article and link when it appears online.

[Turborama]

3. 6 Americans on medical team killed in Afghanistan

6 Americans on medical team killed in Afghanistan

By KATHY GANNON (AP) – 9 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan — Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity."

Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said the eight-member medical team, which also included one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, was driving to Kabul from an eye clinic in northeastern Nuristan province when they were killed in Badakhshan province to the north.

The group had decided to head through Badakhshan to return to the capital because they thought that would be the safest route, Frans said.

"This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," according to a statement released by the nonprofit Christian organization. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year."

Full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9HEHL9O0

AJ English article on this: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108775112294407.html

[aquart]

4. I'm still shaking.

Medical workers! Not mine! Mine's a journalist! I get to be relieved. And I will stop crying in a minute.

For ten families, they don't get the relief. Just the fear, and the doubt, and then the confirmation. And then a really bad year.

I'm on a list to be notified. I signed stuff. I get to hear first. Didn't stop me from jumping when I saw the headline in my email.

I know I'm not the only one who jumped and then got to be relieved. How many do we have out there? How many back here jumping at headlines?

[kpete]

5. 6 Americans on medical mission killed in Afghanistan

Source: MSNBC


6 Americans on medical mission killed in Afghanistan
German, Briton and two Afghans also slain in Taliban ambush on Christian charity workers

KABUL, Afghanistan — Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity."

Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said the eight-member medical team, which also included one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, was driving to Kabul from an eye clinic in northeastern Nuristan province when they were killed in Badakhshan province to the north.

The group had decided to head through Badakhshan to return to the capital because they thought that would be the safest route, Frans said.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38604010/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

[kpete]

6. 6 Americans on medical mission killed in Afghanistan

This thread has been combined with another thread.

Click here to read this message in its new location.

[crim son]

7. Extremely upsetting.

There is no helping these people. All those involved must acknowledge this and get out NOW, sad as it is.

[Turborama]

8. Blog reveals Afghanistan medic Karen Woo's dedication

Blog posts written by Briton Dr Karen Woo, named as one of 10 medics shot dead in Afghanistan, offer a human insight into the aid mission to the war-torn country.

The BBC understands that Dr Woo gave up a well-paid job with private healthcare provider Bupa to work in Afghanistan for minimal financial reward.

She died alongside six Americans, a German and two Afghan interpreters who had been working with Christian charity the International Assistance Mission to provide eye care in remote villages.

Her blog posts reveal that she was driven by a desire to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans - and spread the word about their plight.

On the blog-hosting website http://bridgeafghanistan.blogspot.com/">Bridge Afghanistan, Dr Woo described the effect on her of a 2009 visit to Kabul, and told of her plans to make a documentary.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10903737

A British doctor called Karen Woo was known to be on the expedition and played a major part in organising it, including by running fundraising events in London and Kabul to pay for the "Nuristan Medical Expedition 2010".

Woo, from London, had established an organisation called Bridge Afghanistan to help run medical projects in the country.

Writing on the expedition's Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuristan-Medical-Expedition-2010/128018903900980">Woo described herself as the team doctor and said she would run the mother and child clinics inside Nuristan. She wrote that the team also included an eye doctor and a dental surgeon.

According to IAM the group were returning from a several week long trip to provide basic health in a remote area of Nuristan province when they were attacked by gunmen in a forested area of Badakhshan, the most north-eastern of Afghanistan's provinces.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/07/british-aid-worker-killed-afghanistan1

[Turborama]

12. "The death of my friend Karen"

Karen Woo and her nine colleagues were bringing medical care to the poorest communities of a ravaged nation they had grown to love when they were ambushed and shot dead, one by one

By Kim Sengupta in Kandahar


Dr Karen Woo during a previous visit to Kabul
for Bridge Afghanistan

Violent deaths are hardly uncommon in Afghanistan. But even in this bloody conflict, the murder of Karen Woo and her colleagues is a particularly shocking and senseless act, a bleak reminder of the lethal savagery spreading across the country.

When news began to filter through on Friday evening that the bodies of a group of foreigners, including women, had been found in Badakhshan, there was a sense of foreboding among those who knew Karen and were aware that she was among a group of doctors who were travelling in that area.

The initial reports yesterday morning suggested that none of the victims was British. But that changed and, in the afternoon, a mutual friend telephoned to say that Dr Woo was indeed one of the women who had died. "This is so bloody stupid," he said. "Why on earth did they do it? All she was doing was helping people here, the poorest people here. And she had so much to look forward to."

Dr Woo was 36 and due to get married later this month. I ran into her fiancé, Mark "Paddy" Smith, a former soldier with disarming Irish charm, at a bar, the Gandamack in Kabul. He was returning to England for a colleague's funeral; making arrangements for the wedding would be a welcome distraction from a sad occasion. He was worried about his fiancée's trip, but accepted that she passionately believed in what she was doing and knew it would not be right for him to stand in her way.

Full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-death-of-my-friend-karen-2046693.html

[Turborama]

15. Doctor killed on Afghanistan aid mission was not religious, say family

Karen Woo's relatives reject Taliban claims she was trying to convert Muslims, saying her motives were purely humanitarian

Jon Boone in Kabul and Adam Gabbatt
guardian.co.uk, Sunday August 8 2010 14.06 BST

The family of the British doctor shot dead by gunmen in Afghanistan, today rejected Taliban claims that she was preaching Christianity to Muslims, saying she was not religious at all.

=snip=

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings, with a spokesman saying the group was shot because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity". Today, Woo's family rejected this, calling her a "true hero" who had no religious or political agenda.

"Her motivation was purely humanitarian. She was a humanist and had no religious or political agenda," said the family in a statement.

=snip=

"She wanted the world to know there was more than a war going on in Afghanistan, that people were not getting their basic needs met. She wanted the ordinary people of Afghanistan, especially the women and children, to be be able to receive healthcare," the family statement said.

"Her commitment was to make whatever difference she could. She was a true hero. Whilst scared, she never let that prevent her from doing things she had to do."

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/08/doctor-karen-woo-not-religious

[unkachuck]

9. this is a war zone....

....in a Muslim country that we have invaded and occupied....in a country where our military, drones and Hellfire missiles fly and kill daily, sometimes indiscriminately....

....a Christan guy hawking eye glasses followed by the above might be looked at suspiciously....

[Turborama]

10. Your post sounds like Taliban apologetics.

These medical aid workers (not eye glass sales people as you imply) were very brave heroes and did not deserve to be murdered. The charity they were working for has been giving medical aid to Afghans for 44 years and assist over a quarter of a million of them a year.

Nuristan Medical Expedition 2010's Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuristan-Medical-Expedition-2010/128018903900980

Someone who knows the area well explains how they try to avoid the dangers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0bfIYMPmhQ

[joshcryer]

11. Disgraceful.

[Green_Lantern]

22. that's a pretty bad response and groundless based on the facts..

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129061731">Yesterday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for killing a team of foreign medical workers in northern Afghanistan. Six Americans, a Britain, a German and two Afghans were ambushed, robbed and shot to death as they returned from a remote medical clinic.

They robbed and executed unarmed people...this was no fight against American occupation.

[unkachuck]

29. "...that's a pretty bad response..."

....just trying to give a honest response....some in this group might have been the salt-of-the-earth, others maybe not....

....if I were looking to do charitable medical work I'm sure I could find plenty of need right here in the good old USA....to be an openly Christian American in remote areas of Afghanistan today, would certainly make me feel like a target....

"...this was no fight against American occupation."

....when your country is being occupied by a foreign power, from your point of view, everything you'd do would be 'against the occupation'....

....has the CIA never embedded in a NGO?

[Turborama]

30. Yet more shameless Taliban apologetics

You really sympathize with them don't you. 1st, it's not an "occupation", even though that's how the Taliban describe it. You also seem to believe them when they say these aid workers were spies.


Slain relief workers were very dangerous, indeed

POSTED BY CHERYL TUCKER ON AUGUST 9, 2010 AT 7:40 PM SHARE THIS

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

The Taliban is trying to justify the slaughter last week of the Nuristan Eye Camp Expedition by saying the 10 victims were Christian missionaries trying to lead Afghans away from Islam.

No, they weren’t proselytizers. They were so much more dangerous than that.

They were humanitarians, selflessly working to help some of the world’s most destitute people in one of the world’s most dangerous places, living their religious beliefs through their good works.

They were dangerous because what they were doing was much likelier to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people than anything that could be done by any nation’s army. But they weren’t in Afghanistan to win converts to either Christianity or to democracy. They were there just to help.

Full article: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/opinion/2010/08/09/slain-relief-workers-were-very-dangerous-indeed/#ixzz0wAzD3q9P

Profiles of the 8 aid workers and 2 Afghan assistants murdered in cold blood by the Taliban...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4496852#4497905

[Green_Lantern]

32. the Taliban prefer to keep Afghanis hopeless...

nt

[unkachuck]

35. I'm sorry....

....you're right, I'm wrong....Humanitarian Kindness....not 911? Al Qaeda? Pipelines? Nation-building? War-profiteering?

....just keep away from the Social Programs when it comes time to pay for all this shit....

[Turborama]

40. I'm sorry too

I don't understand your cryptic code and what you're trying to say.

[unkachuck]

42. don't....

....think 'cryptic code', think 'big picture'....better yet, you have an ignore button, use it!

[Green_Lantern]

31. oh I see so charity groups should only go to safe places?

I guess they should stay out of inner cities and poor rural areas...Maybe they should just go to gated communities...

Again you're ignoring anything that goes against your narrative.

These people were robbed and executed...they weren't armed.

If our soldiers captured and executed unarmed Afghanis I doubt you'd be saying "Well Al Qaeda has embedded with civilians."

[unkachuck]

37. "...charity groups should only go to safe places?"

....no, but the corporate media and their corporate partners will use this to demonize and justify their Afghan war....

....I'm not supporting the Talibans' actions, I'm opposing the use of those actions to ultimately justify war....

[Green_Lantern]

39. newsflash...we are already in Afghanistan so what are you

talking about?

You didn't say anything about just wanting troops out of there...you specifically justified these murders as "executing spies."

[unkachuck]

41. that wasn't....

....'justifying', that was 'understanding', and who's to say what are all the facts surrounding this event....war happens in war-zones....and people die in war-zones....

[Green_Lantern]

43. executing unarmed civilians isn't just part of war..

So...was the Serbian massacre of Bosnian Muslims just a part of war?

You weren't understanding...you were completely ignoring the fact these people were robbed and killed. You say they were spies....

[MarkInSavannah]

33. Other than the murderous Taliban claim, where else has the word

"Christian" even been used? Your explanation continues to ring hollow.

[unkachuck]

38. somewhere....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4496852#4497905

....in the above OP is mentioned, International Assistance Mission, A Christan aid group....

[Turborama]

13. Eye surgeon devoted 30 years to patients in poverty

By Nina Lakhani


Dr Tom Little: Led the team murdered by the Taliban last week

Tom Little, one of 10 people killed by militants in northern Afghanistan, had spent more than 30 years working in the country, often in harsh and remote areas. Dr Little, a senior opthamologist from Delmar, New York, led the team of nurses, doctors and logistics personnel murdered in an attack. The Taliban yesterday claimed responsibility.

=snip=

As a senior member of IAM working with the Noor Eye Institute, Dr Little trained the former Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, who yesterday paid tribute: "Dr Little travelled the length and breadth of Afghanistan, treating thousands and thousands of Afghans."

He supervised eye hospitals in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat, as well as smaller clinics in three towns. IAM has worked in Afghanistan since 1966, longer than any other NGO, and treats around quarter of a million Afghans every year.

His team trekked, on foot and on horseback, from village to village over two weeks in Nuristan Province, providing specialist eye treatment and healthcare to around 400 people before last week's attack, according to IAM's director, Dirk Frans.

Full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/eye-surgeon-devoted-30-years-to-patients-in-poverty-2046692.html

[Turborama]

14. 'A hundred rockets a day was a good day,' doctor's widow says

Tom Little (right) died right where he loved to be,
according to his wife, Libby Little.

(CNN) -- Risking their lives to help disadvantaged Afghans became almost a norm for Tom and Libby Little. "We raised our three daughters through what was, at times, just hell," Libby Little said. "A hundred rockets a day was a good day."

=snip=

It was the remote areas of Afghanistan, Little said, where the need for her husband's services was often greatest.

"Huge populations were in these remote valleys," she said. The Littles would sometimes hike 40 miles one-way -- over mountains -- to access villages to host eye camps.

Little said her husband had recently become involved in a program to eradicate preventable blindness by the year 2020. "There's a lot of preventable blindness in Afghanistan -- blinding eye diseases that can be solved with just very small work," she said.

Full article: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/08/08/afghanistan.aid.widow/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ&wom=false

[Turborama]

16. This has now been made into a Wikipedia article entitled "2010 Badakhshan massacre"

With more details of the victims and what happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Badakhshan_massacre

[daleo]

17. This is bad

Just as bad as U.S./NATO blowing up and shooting innocent Afghanis.

This war is all-round hopeless.

[Turborama]

18. It is bad. However, NATO have killed Afghan civilians accidentally, not on purpose

Unless you have evidence that proves otherwise. The vast majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan are caused by the Taliban.

These aid workers were murdered on purpose.

[daleo]

19. They are just as dead either way.

For me the NATO deaths are at least as bad, because my tax dollars are paying for the bombs and bullets.

I see no successful end to this war, so we might as well leave now. It looks like the Viet Nam war, that way. Getting into debates about intentions when innocents are killed doesn't change those realities.

[Green_Lantern]

23. That's an odd argument...

Targeting civilians to kill is definitely different than civilians being killed accidentally in a war.

International law recognizes the difference...they idea that they're the same has no precedence in international law.

Innocent civilians were killed in the Civil War and WW2 also...it doesn't mean they were war crimes.

[superconnected]

25. Civilians killed "accidentally" in war? Really?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/01-0

I think it's the innocent civilians the troops killed on PURPOSE that creates this situation.

It takes a whole lot of denial to not admit to the murder of civilians when it's the troops themselves telling you what they were ordered to do.

[Green_Lantern]

26. troops that kill civilians on purpose are guilty of war crimes...

And face charges under international law. But soldiers are innocent until proven guilty.

Or do you think they should be assumed guilty?

[superconnected]

27. Maybe if you READ the article you'll see they're telling us they were ORDERED

to kill civilians and put their guns in the air - and got in trouble for shooting in the air and not at people, but not everybody did that.

It's not a question of being tried for war crimes - yet. It's a question of the standard behavior of our military - killing civilians for being present.

[Green_Lantern]

28. it doesn't really prove anything..

These soldiers could easily be lying to save their own butts.

According to Huffington Post Rules of Engagement for soldiers in Afghanistan are very restrictive: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/us-troops-in-afghanistan_n_640030.html

[JonLP24]

36. US doesn't accept ICC jurisdiction

over US forces. It really is up to military themselves to prosecute these people. Majority of the time when the US does violate the Geneva convention like at Abu Ghraib, they don't get in trouble for it.

[ShamelessHussy]

20. thats what all occupation forces say

fyi

[Turborama]

21. NATO is not an occupation force, though.

FYI

[Green_Lantern]

24. innocent civilians were killed in WW2 also so what about that?

The Taliban has no legitimate authority to use military force...

[LandR]

34. Not Getting Better

2010 is on pace to be the deadliest year in Afghanistan to date. Additionally, July 2010 was the deadliest month of the Afghanistan War. These dreadful statistics are not getting any better, especially when there is more and more news stories about Afghanistan attacks.

Also, since December remains the next date as to when a decision on the number of troops in Afghanistan will be made, the likelihood of decreasing troops is not likely. Hesitatingly so, the only way troops will be reduced is if it results in a direct increase in the deployment of the same number or even more private contractors.