Foreign Contractor Kidnapped In Kabul

Afghan officials say a foreign contractor has been kidnapped in the capital, Kabul.

Agriculture Ministry spokesman Latifullah Rashedi said the man, who was kidnapped early on June 18, was working in the accounting department of the ministry as part of a project managed by the World Bank.

Rashedi declined to give the individual’s nationality.

Rauof Zia, media officer for the World Bank in Afghanistan, said the kidnapped individual is a Kenyan national working for one of the lender's projects under the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.

Basir Mujahid, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said the contractor was African.

Police have started investigating the kidnapping and rescue efforts were under way, he added.

Mujahid said the man was kidnapped in the western neighborhood of Kart-e Char at around 9 a.m. local time.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

In May, a Finnish woman was kidnapped from a Kabul guesthouse in an attack that killed a German woman and an Afghan security guard.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa