South African and Briton DHL Staff Killed in the Afghanistan

A Briton and a South African working for international courier company DHL were killed along with an Afghan guard in a shoot out in Afghanistan's capital Kabul Saturday, officials said.

It was the second fatal shooting involving the international community in the city in five days with a dual national British-South African aid worker gunned down Monday in a killing claimed by the insurgent Taliban.

Separately on Saturday, two Turks and two Bangladeshis were reported kidnapped elsewhere in Afghanistan, which this year has seen a spiral in violence blamed on increasing insurgent attacks and crime.

It was unclear what prompted Saturday's exchange of fire outside the DHL offices, but one senior police official said an argument had erupted between the foreigners and some Afghans and it was not a Taliban attack.

"Two foreigners and one Afghan have been killed," said Kabul deputy police chief Alishah Ahmadzai. Two people were also wounded, he said, without giving their identities.

The British and South African governments said later they were a Briton and a South African.

They worked for DHL, said a spokesman in Berlin for the German post office, which owns the shipping group. Afghan police said they were the Kabul director and deputy director of the company.

One of them was shot dead in the front passenger seat of a four-wheel-drive vehicle, said an AFP reporter who saw his body slumped in the seat. The front side window was shattered and the cabin spattered with blood.

The other was in the back seat, according to a policeman. The vehicle was covered with a plastic sheet so witnesses could not see inside.

The Afghan appeared to have been shot outside the vehicle, where blood was pooled. He was a guard, a police witness said.

Several people were detained afterwards for questioning, police said.

The killing comes after 34-year-old aid worker Gayle Williams was shot dead Monday while she was walking to work at the SERVE Afghanistan aid organisation.

The Islamist Taliban claimed she was killed because SERVE was "preaching Christianity," a charge rejected by the group which works to help disabled Afghans.

"That is simply not true," SERVE Afghanistan spokeswoman Rina van der Ende reiterated at an emotional press conference in Kabul attended by Williams' mother and sister ahead of her funeral here Sunday.

"There is still no clue why Gayle was murdered," she said.

Authorities have not confirmed that the assassination was carried out by the Taliban.

Security has plummeted in the country this year, with insurgent attacks and crime both surging as foreign troops fight to stem the Taliban-led insurgency.

In other incidents, two Turkish nationals were kidnapped in the eastern province of Khost along with their Afghan driver and translator, provincial governor Arsala Jamal said Saturday.

The men had been contracted to erect a radio mast, Jamal said. There had been no contact from the abductors, who were unknown, he said.

A spokesman for the Taliban, which has carried out several kidnappings for ransom or to put political pressure on the authorities, said the militia was not responsible and blamed bandits.

The visiting Turkish foreign minister, Ali Babacan, said he had expressed his concerns about the abduction of his countrymen during a meeting with his Afghan counterpart in Kabul Saturday.

In Dhaka, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) said two of its Bangladeshi staff were kidnapped in the central province of Ghazni on Friday.

"We don't know who abducted them and where they have been taken," said Mahbub Hossain, BRAC executive director.

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US Marines Deployed To Afghanistan To Boost NATO Coalition

JASON STRAZIUSO,

U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.

They hope to retake the 10 percent of Afghanistan the Taliban holds.

Some of the Marines that make up the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit helped to tame a thriving insurgency in western Iraq. The newly arrived forces hope to move into regions of Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.

The troops are working alongside British forces in Helmand province — the world's largest opium-poppy region and site of the fiercest Taliban resistance over the last two years. The director of U.S. intelligence has said the Taliban controls 10 percent of Afghanistan — much of that in Helmand.

"Our mission is to come here and essentially set the conditions, make Afghanistan a better place, provide some security, allow for the expansion of governance in those same areas," said Col. Peter Petronzio, the unit's commander.

Thirteen of the 19 Marines in the platoon of 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was once al-Qaida in Iraq's stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.

Lynch expects the Marines, who arrived last month on a seven-month deployment, will help calm Helmand as well.

"If you flood a city with Marines, it's going to quiet down," Lynch said in between sets of push-ups on Helmand province's sandy ground. "We know for seven months we're not here to occupy, we're just here to set conditions for whoever comes in after us."

Taliban fighters have largely shunned head-on battles since losing hundreds of fighters in the Panjwayi region of Kandahar province in fall 2006, and it's not clear that Taliban fighters will stay to face the Marines in regions they operate.

Lynch, a mobile assault commander, said he doesn't care if the militants flee: "Just get the Taliban out of here, that's the biggest thing."

Western countries, including the U.S. and other NATO nations, have been sending more troops to Afghanistan as violence has escalated.

More than 8,000 people, mainly militants, were killed in insurgency-related violence in 2007, the U.N. says.

The number of suicide attacks spiked in 2007, with the Taliban launching more than 140 suicide missions, the highest number since 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. now has 32,500 troops in the country — the most since the 2001 invasion. In late 2006, Afghanistan had 40,000 international troops. Today, that number is almost 70,000.

But Western officials have warned in recent months that the international mission could fail. Washington has lobbied for NATO nations to provide more troops in Afghanistan, and in particular to add forces in the southern and eastern areas which have seen most of the recent fighting against the resurgent Taliban.

The Marines' presence in southern Afghanistan is a clear sign that neither Britain nor Canada — which operates in nearby Kandahar province — have enough troops to control the region. But commanders and troops say the countries are working well together.

British Capt. Alex West helped deliver supplies to a remote and dusty firebase in Helmand province about a week ago.

"We spent the last operations borrowing kit (gear) off you, so it's about time you borrow stuff from us," said West, 29, of Colchester, England. "All of us have been in operations where the American have helped us, so we're happy to help."

The Marines are known as the theater task force, meaning they fall under the direct control of U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan. McNeill can move the Marines to whatever flashpoint he wants. Most other U.S. troops are stationed at permanent bases in the east.

The Marines have been moving supplies and forces through Helmand by ground convoys the last several weeks, a draining and dangerous task. Some convoys have taken more than 20 hours to complete, and two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb April 15.

Lt. Col. Ricky Brown, the commander of the logistics battalion, gave a pep talk to a supply convoy last week, hinting at operations to come.

"You all are gonna move down there so the BLT (battalion landing team) can go in there and kick some Taliban butt," he said.

They have also been given directions to steer clear of the region's poppy fields so they don't risk alienating local farmers who rely on the cash crop for their income.

Counter-insurgency doctrine calls for forces to first clear a region of militants, hold that region and then build up government institutions and businesses. But the Marines are in the country for only seven months, meaning they don't have time to hold and build regions. But it's not clear if there are enough other NATO troops to hold areas, either.

"We are the clear piece," said Clinton. "There are others who will do the holding and building. We're clearing and doing some holding."

While riding in a 47-vehicle convoy through the sands of Helmand province this past week, 1st Lt. Dan Brown said the terrain reminded him of other missions.

"If you didn't know any better you'd think you were in Anbar right now," he said, referring to western Iraq.

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