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.