Foreign Aid Worker Gunned Down In Kabul

An Afghan official stands at the site of the shooting in Kabul

KABUL (Reuters) -- Unknown gunmen have killed a foreign woman working for an aid agency in the Afghan capital, officials said.

The woman was from South Africa, an intelligence official said, but other officials said they were unable to confirm her nationality. Two men on a motorbike shot the woman early on October 20 in a southern district of Kabul, the private Tolo TV station said.

The body of the woman was brought to a nearby hospital.

"Police brought the body of a woman from district three. The documents they gave us say she was South African," said Mohammad Omar Hadi, deputy head of the hospital. "We still haven't completed our checks, but the initial information is that she received gunshot wounds."

The woman worked for a British-based Christian aid organization that focuses on community development and education and vocational training for people with disabilities.

A spokesman for the Taliban declined to comment on the incident, neither confirming nor denying the Islamist militant group's involvement.

Taliban insurgents have increasingly targeted aid workers this year in their campaign to spread an atmosphere of fear and undermine support for the Western-backed Afghan government.

Taliban insurgents killed three female aid workers and their Afghan driver in an ambush just outside Kabul in August, the bloodiest single attack on foreign humanitarian workers in Afghanistan in recent years.

Rising violence has already forced aid agencies to restrict humanitarian work at a time when drought and high prices are putting more people under pressure.