U.S. officials condemn attacks on aid workers in Afghanistan

Source: CNN International

U.S. officials issued scathing condemnation Sunday of an attack on 10 multinational medical aid workers in Afghanistan as the victims' bodies were returned to Kabul.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack, said Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, but "we do not know whether they are responsible or simply taking credit for the cowardly and despicable acts of others."

Six Americans, two Afghans, a Briton and a German were shot and killed by gunmen in Badakhshan, a remote northeastern region of the country, said Dirk Frans, the director of the International Assistance Mission. Two other Afghans on the team were alive, Frans said.

Eikenberry said officials were working to identify the victims.

Thomas Grams of Durango, Colorado, was among the Americans who died, Katy Shaw, an administrator with Global Dental Relief, said Sunday. Grams had been working with the group for 10 years, she said, and had been to Afghanistan several times, along with Nepal. He was a general dentist who gave up his private practice to do relief work, she said. Grams started as a volunteer with the group, which provides dental care for impoverished children, but later became a team leader.

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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/08/afghanistan.aid.workers/?hpt=T2#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ&wom=false

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The team had spent several days in Nuristan province, where they treated cataracts and other eye conditions, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.

"At their next stop, they planned to run a dental clinic and offer maternal and infant health care," Clinton said. "They were unarmed. They were not being paid for their services. They had traveled to this distant part of the world because they wanted to help people in need. They were guests of the Afghan people. The Taliban stopped them on a remote road on their journey from Nuristan, led them into a forest, robbed them and killed them."

"We are heartbroken by the loss of these heroic, generous people," Clinton said. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this senseless act. We also condemn the Taliban's transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about their activities in Afghanistan."

Badakhshan, bordered by Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south, is a sparsely populated region comprised of a majority Tajik population and an Uzbek and Kyrgyz minority. Badakhshan was the only province that was not controlled by the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan.

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More details of the victims and what they were doing to help Afghans being posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4495235

2010 Badakhshan massacre

Victims

Not all victims have been identified, but they included

Tom Little, an optometrist from Delmar, New York
Karen Woo, a physician from Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Thomas Grams, 51, a dentist from Colorado.

Little had worked in Afghanistan for over three decades and spoke Dari fluently. He moved to Afghanistan in the late seventies and raised his three daughters there. He was expelled from Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001 but returned soon after the American invasion. Woo, 36, was a former dancer and airplane wing walker who later returned to school later in life and was a surgeon who had trained at St Mary's Hospital, London, and had left a lucrative position with Bupa (a healthcare organisation) in England to work with the poor people of Afghanistan. Woo was engaged to be married in two weeks. Afghanistan has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and her work involved helping pregnant women. Her family stated that Woo was not religious at all and that her motivations were purely humanitarian.

More, with references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Badakhshan_massacre#Victims