NY Times-10 US/Foreign Medical Aid Workers Murdered In Afhghanistan

Karen Woo of Britain and Tom Little of the U.S.:Times Union/AP, Bridge Afghanistan?AP

(Story reported by Rod Norland, the New York Times)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Their last meal was a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan, as they were on their long way home.

The group — a medical aid team of six Americans, a Briton, a German and four Afghans — had just finished eating when they were accosted by gunmen with long red beards, the local police said.

The gunmen marched the aid workers into the forest, stood 10 of them in a straight line, 7 men and 3 women, and shot them. The police found their bodies on Friday, the Badakhshan Province police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, said Saturday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility, accusing the group of being spies and Christian missionaries.

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