Five Afghan labourers working at a US military base in Afghanistan have been killed in an ambush on their way home from work, police said today.
The labourers worked at a US base in the province on the Pakistani border. The eastern province of Kunar is one of the most violent parts of the country where US forces have mounted a series of offensives.
It was the second major attack on people working for foreign forces in less than three weeks. A bomb hit a minibus taking workers to a military base in the southern city of Kandahar on June 15th, killing eight of them.
The Kunar chief of police said the gunmen appeared to be foreigners and blamed the Taliban.
Taliban insurgents and their militant allies have unleashed a wave of attacks this year against foreign and government troops, and anyone supporting them. The violence is the worst since the hardline Taliban were ousted in 2001.