Insurgents killed three female international aid workers and their local driver in an ambush in Afghanistan today, the provincial governor said.
"They were travelling in a car towards Kabul," said Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province south of Kabul where the incident took place.
"Three foreign women employees of IRC (International Rescue Committee) and their local driver were killed in this ambush by the opposition forces," he said. "I do not know the identity of the foreigners."
Rising violence has forced aid agencies to restrict their humanitarian and development work at a time when drought and high prices are putting more people under pressure, a group of 100 non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan said this month.
Many schools and clinics have closed and significant numbers of people have become internally displaced. Aid agencies have been attacked and 19 Afghan NGO staff killed this year.
Violence in Afghanistan has reached its worst level since US-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. There were more violent incident in each of the last three months than in any month since 2001, aid agencies say.
Reuters