A breaking story from Afghanistan reports the killing by the Taliban of a
group of Christian doctors, six Americans, a Briton, a German, and two Afghan
interpreters. They were on a medical mission with the International
Assistance Mission,
http://www.iam-afghanistan.org/
An article in the Washington Post says that among the dead was team
leader Tom Little, an optometrist from New York who had been thrown out of
Afghanistan by the Taliban government in 2001 amid a crackdown on Christian aid
workers. The IAM director Dirk Frans said the IAM does not proselytize.
According to their website, the International Assistance Mission, which was
founded in 1966, is an international charitable, non-profit, Christian
organisation, serving the people of Afghanistan, through capacity building in
the sectors of Health and Economic Development.
The article copied below from the Christian Science Monitor provides
more details.
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International Assistance Mission
slayings: part of Taliban war strategy
The Taliban in Afghanistan are claiming responsibility for
the attack on an International Assistance Mission medical team, in which 10
people died. The attack is one of the deadliest for American aid workers since
the Afghanistan war began.
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / August 7, 2010
The execution-style killings of 10 people working for a Christian medical
team in a remote region of northern Afghanistan fit into Taliban insurgents'
stated shift in tactics: Target Western civilians, especially Christians, as
"foreign invaders."
The Taliban took credit for one of the deadliest attacks yet on aid workers
in Afghanistan, saying the Christian charity workers were proselytizing to poor
villagers – a charge that the International Assistance Mission, which dispatched
the team, denies.
The bodies of six Americans, a Briton, a German, and two Afghan
interpreters were discovered Friday in a forested part of Badakhshan Province in
remote northern Afghanistan – until now considered a relatively peaceful region
known mostly to adventure travelers. The only person in the party not killed was
a local translator who offered proof he was a Muslim by quoting the Koran,
according to the Associated Press.
The attack represents the largest single toll of American civilian deaths
in Afghanistan since December, when a suicide bomber killed seven members of a
CIA team. It also points to the operational viability of Taliban insurgents'
stated intent to target foreign aid workers as combatants.
"There has been a rise in politically motivated attacks" against aid
workers, according to a 2008 roundup of aid worker deaths by Change.org, a Web
consortium of social justice groups. "Many rebel and insurgent groups no longer
see humanitarian workers as neutral or independent." After killing four aid
workers in 2008, the Taliban issued a statement saying their group was working
for "foreign invader forces," according to Change.org.
The International Assistance Mission has operated under kings, warlords,
and the Taliban since it began its work in Afghanistan in 1966, making it the
longest-serving nongovernmental organization in the country. "This tragedy
negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has
been doing since 1966," the organization wrote on its website. "We hope it will
not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each
year."
At least one killed in the attack would have been very familiar with that
trend. American optometrist Tom Little was detained and thrown out of
Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001 for allegedly proselytizing. He returned to
Afghanistan after the American invasion following the 9/11 terrorism attacks. On
Friday, Dr. Little was among the dead in Karan Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan,
where the killings took place.
The number of aid workers killed worldwide jumped from 29 in 1999 to a
record 122 in 2008. In Afghanistan alone, 33 were killed in 2008. Just last
month, four people involved with the US-based development firm DAI were killed
after gunmen stormed its Kunduz Province offices.
The medical team was attacked as it was returning to Kabul from a 15-day
tour providing eye care to rural villagers in the Parun valley. According to
information posted before the journey by one of the slain doctors, Karen Woo of
Britain, part of the trek involved a packhorse train across 16,000-foot-high
mountain peaks.
"The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental resolve and will
not be without risk but ultimately, I believe that the provision of medical
treatment is of fundamental importance and that the effort is worth it in order
to assist those who need it most," Dr. Woo wrote on a website.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack
in conversations with Western reporters. "One of our patrols confronted a group
of foreigners," Mr. Mujahid was quoted as saying. "They were Christian
missionaries and we killed them all." In the past, the Taliban has claimed
responsibility for attacks carried out in actuality by bandits and independent
warlords.
But the Los Angeles Times quoted Gen. Agha Nur Kamtuz, police chief in
Badakhshan, saying the area had become dangerous in the past month, with intense
fighting taking place between Taliban and Western-backed Afghan security
forces.
"People told them it was dangerous," Mr. Kamtuz told the Times. "They said
they were doctors and no one had anything against
them."
