Kabul
25 October 2008
Afghan police say the two top officials of an international shipping
company and one of their security guards were shot dead Saturday in
front of their office in Kabul. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports
from the Afghan capital the killings are the latest in a series of
attacks on foreign nationals there.
Afghan officials say the two
Westerners were gunned down as they sat in a vehicle in front of the
German-owned freight company DHL.
On the scene, General Mirza
Mohammad Yarmand, the director of the Interior Ministry's criminal
investigation department, told reporters the shots were fired from
inside the DHL office.
General Yarmand says one of the guards at
the DHL facility fired at the vehicle, killing the two foreign company
officials and their Afghan bodyguard. He says a motive has not been
established.
The DHL office is located at a busy intersection across from the Iranian Embassy, in an upscale section of Kabul.
Police and diplomats say the two DHL officials - the country director and deputy director -- were from Britain and South Africa.
Officials
of Saladin, a British-based private security company confirmed to VOA
News that the Afghan guard who died was employed by them.
Authorities say two other Afghans, standing outside the DHL office, were wounded in the shooting.
Police
detained 13 people, including DHL employees and guards. Interior
Ministry officials say they are questioning them to determine whether
the shooting stemmed from an "internal dispute" or outsiders were
involved.
The latest violence comes less than a week after the
shooting death of Gayle Williams, a British-South African national
working for a Christian charity in Kabul. Taliban insurgents claimed
they attacked the young woman because her British organization, SERVE
Afghanistan, was spreading Christianity.
The charity denied it was proselytizing but decided to close its operation in the country following the killing.
Security
has deteriorated in the capital and many parts of the country. Taliban
insurgents and criminal gangs are blamed for a recent wave of killings
and kidnappings targeting Afghans and foreigners.
Afghan
authorities say several foreigners have been abducted in the past few
days in the country. Among them are two Bangladeshi development workers
in Ghazni province and two Turkish engineers hired to erect a
communications tower near the Pakistani border in Khost province.