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11 Chinese Workers Killed In Afghanistan
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The
Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan condemned the attack
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KABUL,
June 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Chinese Embassy
confirmed Thursday, June 10, the killing of eleven Chinese
construction workers overnight in a usually peaceful area of
northeastern Afghanistan, the worst attack on foreigners since the
fall of Taliban.
Around
20 armed men stormed a compound housing Chinese workers building a
road in Kunduz province, 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of the
capital Kabul, and opened fire on the sleeping workers from automatic
weapons, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoting embassy sources.
The
Chinese Embassy in Kabul described the raid as a "terrorist
attack."
Chinese
President Hu Jintao condemned the slaying as "inhumane" but
said it would not halt his country's participation in the
reconstruction of war-ruined Afghanistan.
The
U.N.'s special envoy to Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, condemned the
attack and noted that it followed a "series of incidents"
against humanitarian aid workers and U.N. officials working on the
elections.
Regional
military commander General Mohammed Daud blamed the attack on
"enemies of Afghanistan, Taliban and Al-Qaeda," adding that
one Afghan also died in the attack.
The
attackers were armed with machine guns and AK-47s and traveled in two
small vehicles, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Marshal
told AFP.
A
spokesman for German peacekeepers, part of the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF), based in Kunduz city said a total of
16 people were hurt.
The
Germans provided blood for transfusions for the injured, who were
taken to a hospital in Kunduz, he told AFP.
The
compound, some 36 kilometers (22 miles) south of Kunduz, was home to
around 90 Chinese workers who are building a road for the China
Railway Construction Shisiju Group Corporation.
Most
of those killed had only arrived in Kunduz 24 hours earlier, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said.
The
Embassy was still trying to identify the victims.
Spiraling
Violence
The
night-time killing was the second murder of foreigners in a week in
northern Afghanistan, until now considered free of the spiraling
clashes with Taliban fighters in the south and southeast.
On
June 2 three Europeans working for Medecins Sans Frontieres and their
two local assistants were shot dead on a road in the northwest
province of Badghis.
Two
weeks ago, the
European Union’s executive committee accused the U.S. forces
of endangering the lives of aid workers in southern Afghanistan.
The
activity of relief workers is made dangerous by U.S.-led troops in
southern Afghanistan dressing in civilian clothes and using the same
vehicles as aid agencies, European Commission spokesman Jean-Charles
Ellermann-Kingombe said Thursday, May 27.
Dozens
of suspected Taliban members have been killed by U.S.-led forces in
southern and central regions over the past week and aid workers have
been ambushed and attacked.
Northern
Afghanistan is considered one of the most stable areas of the country
with anti-U.S. fighters more active in the south and southeast, the
strongholds of the former Taliban regime.
Suspension
Of Registration
In
a separately-related development, the U.N. Thursday suspended voter
registration in Kunduz.
U.N.
operations would continue as normal in the province but road travel
would be curtailed, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.
Kunduz
is the only city where ISAF has deployed peacekeepers outside the
capital.
A
contingent now numbering 250 German peacekeepers has been based there
since October.
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