Prime Minister condemns killing of aid workers in Afghanistan
THE CANADIAN PRESS
RENEWS-CAPPAHAYDEN, N.L. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says an attack that killed three aid workers in Afghanistan - including two Canadians - is a reminder of the Taliban's brutality.
The three women, working for the New York-based International Rescue Committee, were shot several times while in a truck on its way to Kabul .
One was identified as a Canadian and another as a British-Canadian. The third woman was from Trinidad. The gunmen also killed their Afghan driver.
"I want to first of all express my condolences to the families of these murdered humanitarian workers," Harper said Wednesday during a visit to eastern Newfoundland.
"This is obviously an outrage, a terribly brutal act, which I think should remind everybody of the brutality of the Taliban and the danger that everybody there faces - not just military people but all those who are there trying to help rebuild this country."
Michael Kocher, the aid agency's vice-president of international programs, identified the 40-year-old British-Canadian as Jacqueline Kirk of Outremont, Que. She had been the agency's education adviser since 2004, he said.
The other Canadian killed was identified as Shirley Case, 30, of Williams Lake, B.C. She had been in Afghanistan for just more than two months, the IRC stated on its website.
Gordon Campbell, premier of Case's home province of British Columbia, issued a statement offering condolences to her family and speaking out against the attack.
"This was a despicable, senseless and cowardly attack on people who were working to improve the lives of some of the most disadvantaged people in Afghanistan - women and girls, and children with disabilities who live in conflict zones," Campbell said. "I join the international community in condemning this brutal act."
Also killed was Nicole Dial, 32, a dual citizen of Trinidad and the United States, who was the IRC's co-ordinator for children's program.
The driver killed was Mohammad Aimal, 25, who had worked for the IRC for five years.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the target was two vehicles of "the foreign invader forces."
"They were not working for the interests of Afghanistan and they belonged to those countries whose forces ... took Afghanistan's freedom," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a phone call from an undisclosed location.
Mujahid called the women spies, a frequent Taliban accusation.
Witnesses say Taliban fighters armed Kalashnikov rifles fired dozens of bullets into the aid agency's clearly marked SUV as it travelled on the main road south of Kabul in Logar province.
Harper declined to answer other questions while attending a battle re-enactment in the town of Renews-Cappahayden, about 70 kilometres south of St. John's.
[ 2008-08-14 ]
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