UN worker killed in Afghanistan
A French woman working for the United Nations was shot and killed in central Afghanistan today by a man on a motorcycle who opened fire on her UN vehicle, an official said.
She was the first UN staff member killed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime.
David Singh, spokesman for the UN Mission in Afghanistan, said the shooting occurred in a shopping bazaar in Ghazni, the capital of Ghazni province.
He did not immediately release the name of the woman, who worked with the High Commissioner for Refugees operation in the area, saying her relatives had not been notified yet.
The driver of her car, an Afghan national, was shot in the arm and was hospitalised in a stable condition, Singh said.
Shortly afterward, Afghan police fired at the motorcycle, injuring one of the two men and arresting them both, said Ahmad Zia Masood, a spokesman for Ghazni’s governor.
Police were trying to identify the men and determine the reason for the attack, he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, but pro-Taliban forces have recently stepped up attacks in the region.
“Two men on a motorbike drove by her UNHCR vehicle in Ghazni bazaar, with the passenger rider opening fire at point-blank range on the vehicle,” Singh said in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
“One international staff member, a French female national, suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.”
Ghazni is 200 kilometres southwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Singh said all UN staff members in Kandahar in south Afghanistan, Gardez east of Ghazni, and Jalalabad east of Kabul have been instructed to reduce their movements and send their local staff home as a precaution.
The Afghan government was providing additional security to escort the remaining UN staff members in Ghazni to Gardez, about 100 kilometres away, he said.
