KABUL A British aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan last month has been killed by her captors during a rescue bid and four Nato soldiers died in an insurgent ambush, the latest deaths in an increasingly bloody conflict.
President Hamid Karzai has sought tribal support for a Nato-led offensive against the Taliban in their southern heartland to try and turn the tide in a conflict that has dragged on for more than nine years.
Linda Norgrove, 36, who worked for a US aid group, had been abducted on Sept. 26 along with three Afghan co-workers when they visited a project in a remote part of Kunar province, a lawless region bordering Pakistan.
“Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers. From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement on Saturday.
He gave no further details on the Friday night rescue bid.
But a British Foreign Office source said US troops had attempted the rescue. Norgrove, an ex-UN worker, headed a $150million US aid project designed to build local economies.
Her death highlights the increasing dangers faced by aid workers in Afghanistan, where insurgents and other armed groups hold sway in many parts of the country.
“This is devastating news,” said James Boomgard, president of her organization, DAI, a private company involved in development.
In August, eight foreign medical workers, including a British female doctor, as well as two Afghans, were killed by unidentified gunmen in the remote northeast. Insurgents are still holding two French journalists seized last December.
The rescue attempt was not the first such operation. A raid that freed New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a Briton, from his Afghan captors last year provoked anger after his Afghan colleague and a British soldier were killed.
The Afghan war is weighing increasingly on US President Barack Obamas administration as he and his Nato allies face pressure at home to end the unpopular war.
The focus now is increasingly on possible talks between Karzai and the Taliban.
MORE FOREIGN TROOPS DIE
The conflict is more bloody than at any time since the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001 by US-backed forces.
Around 150,000 foreign troops are in the country and more than 2,000 have been killed since the war began, over half just in the last two years.
In more violence on Saturday, four Italian troops were killed in an insurgent attack in the west of the country. The soldiers from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, were returning from a mission when their convoy was ambushed, Italys defence ministry said.
“This assault against Italian soldiers is an example of the high human cost we have to pay for a mission that is fundamental to our national security,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a statement.
More than 20 foreign troops have been killed this month.
The upsurge in attacks coincides with the launch of a campaign by thousands of US troops to drive the insurgents out of areas surrounding the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban.
Karzai travelled to Kandahar on Saturday with the commander of US and Nato forces, General David Petraeus, and US ambassador Karl Eikenberry to seek support from hundreds of tribal elders in Arghandab, a volatile district where US troops are fighting.
“I ask you to help cooperate with the government. We have brought security for you people,” Karzai told the elders.
The Kandahar offensive comes at a key time for Obama who faces November mid-term elections and also an end-of-year review of the Afghanistan war strategy as US lawmakers and the electorate become more uneasy with the conflict.
The insurgency has extended its reach in recent years from its traditional heartland in the south and east of the country to hitherto more peaceful regions, particularly the north.
On Friday, a large bomb in a mosque killed the governor of northern Kunduz province and at least a dozen others as they attended prayers in the highest profile assassination of a government official in more than a year.
In December, Obama ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan to curb the Taliban's resurgence. But he also said US forces would start to come home from July next year as they turn security over to the Afghan armed forces. - Reuters
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