Gunmen fire on UN convoy
Gunmen opened fire on a two-vehicle United Nations convoy travelling in volatile south-eastern Afghanistan, but no injuries were reported, a UN spokesman said today.
Eight armed men stepped into the road and fired on the vehicles at midday on Friday as they travelled from Wazahan village to Hiraqat, said spokesman David Singh.
One vehicles, an unmarked rented car which was carrying two officials of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and an Afghan employee of the World Food Programme, was pumped full of bullets and stolen, Singh said.
A second WFP vehicle carrying three people “immediately turned around and headed back to Wazahan”, escaping unharmed, Singh said.
Authorities who returned to the scene of the attack later found the occupants of the first vehicle unharmed by the side of the road.
Their bullet-ridden car was later recovered.
“The perpetrators have not been caught and investigations are ongoing,” Singh said. “Motives of the attack at this point are unknown.”
Singh said the UN had temporarily ordered its staff to avoid missions on the road.
Last week, the UN announced similar road mission suspensions in several parts of the country, citing insecurity and factional skirmishes.
Much of rural Afghanistan is lawless territory where banditry is common.
