KABUL: A spate of killings and kidnappings of westerners in the Afghan capital has foreigners wondering if they are now on Taliban and criminal hit-lists, but it is more likely they are just getting caught up in spreading insecurity.

The shooting of three westerners in Kabul and the kidnapping of three more has brought home to the cosseted community of consultants and aid workers the daily danger faced by Afghans in a war that has killed some 4,000 people already this year.

While the Taliban said they shot dead British aid worker Gayle Williams in the west of the city three weeks ago for preaching Christianity, a western diplomat said he had seen nothing that indicated insurgent involvement in the crime.

The killing of a Briton and a South African working for international couriers DHL a week later and the kidnapping of two western journalists and an aid worker in the last month also appear to have been criminally rather than politically inspired.

“There seem to be very specific isolated reasons in each case so far, maybe that’s less so for the abductions, but for the murders I wouldn’t say that this is representative of any new trend of killing westerners,” said a western security expert.

“It’s not because anyone decided to go and kill a bunch of westerners as part of some broader political project; there is simply more lawlessness and more conflict and more of us are caught up in it,” said the expert, who declined to be named.

The Afghan government and its western backers are struggling to contain a Taliban insurgency that is both becoming more virulent and spreading its influence to rural areas just an hour’s drive from the densely populated capital itself.

CRIMINAL ALLIANCE: As the Taliban close in on Kabul, a tide of insecurity and criminality precedes them, the security expert said.

“As the conflict gets closer you find an energised criminal sector. If you’re a criminal interested in murder, robbery or kidnap, having a lawless area close by that you can run to inspires you to not feel so afraid of being captured,” he said.

Gunmen who kidnapped Canadian journalist Melissa Fung from the edge of Kabul last month seized on just such an opportunity, taking her to Maidan Wardak, in an area close to the capital that has seen a sharp increase in Taliban activity this last year.Fung was kept, sometimes chained, in an underground cave for four weeks until Afghan security agents freed her on Saturday.

Criminal bands now sometimes aid the Taliban in return for protection or a licence to operate in certain areas.

“Across the country there is an increasing nexus between militants and criminal groups. Criminals are exploiting the insecurity for their own ends. That is reflected in heightened insecurity in Kabul,” said a senior aid worker.

The increased threat may be tangential rather than direct, but the effect is the same and the United Nations and aid agencies have imposed stricter curfews their staff, or issued an outright ban on all but essential travel.

The usual crowds at the handful of bars catering to western thirsts have thinned out, but more importantly foreign aid workers are increasingly unable to get out of their secure offices and see for themselves what is being done on the ground.

Some non-governmental organisations are downsizing their activities and a significant number of staff of some agencies are looking for jobs elsewhere. “Ultimately, it is the Afghan people who will suffer the most,” the senior aid worker said.—Reuters