Foreign Policy Blogs

6 American Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan

Taliban fighters ambushed and killed a 10-member medical team, including six Americans (three of which were women), as they were returning from a trip to a remote northern area to provide eye care to villagers. The Taliban claimed that the aid workers were spies and preachers of Christianity.

This attack is one of the deadliest in the Afghan war, and highlights the increasing danger faced by aid workers. In June this year gunmen and suicide bombers stormed the offices of the U.S.-based development group DAI in Kunduz province, also in Afghanistan’s north, killing at least five people.

 

Author

Keena Seyfarth

Keena Seyfarth is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, getting a combination Masters degree in International Health and Humanitarian Assistance at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and International Development and International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. She has lived much of her life in rural Africa, and traveled extensively through southern and eastern Africa. She recently returned from six months in Ethiopia, where she worked for the public hospital system.