Afghanistan: search for kidnapped aid worker

The group were abducted on Sunday in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan. They were visiting a project in the area in a two-car convoy.

Police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said the kidnappers were armed and their motive was as yet unclear.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm a British national has been abducted in Afghanistan.

“We are working closely with all the relevant local authorities. We are in touch with the family and are providing consular assistance.”

A Taliban spokesman said he was unaware of the incident and no other organisations have yet come forward to claim responsibility.

Channel 4 News has confirmed that the woman worked for the American development organisation, DAI, as did her three local colleagues.

DAI have about 2,000 staff in Afghanistan and is an experienced group, having worked in the country since 2002.

Dangerous area

Aid agencies have told Channel 4 News that eastern Afghanistan, where the Briton was kidnapped, is becoming as dangerous as the Taliban’s heartland in the south, where the insurgency is strongest.

Aid agencies like DAI depend on private security contractors to protect their workers, both Afghani and foreign. Channel 4 News understands that Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai’s commitment to ban all private security companies from the country by mid-December means a “significant number” of aid agencies are now considering whether to withdraw their operations from Afghanistan.

Two French journalists were seized last December north east of Kabul.

In August this year, unidentified gunmen killed eight foreign medical workers and two Afghans in the province of Badakhshan in the north east.

Violence

Violence in Afghanistan has increased across the board this year, according to a recent United Nations report.

Civilian deaths increased by 31 per cent in the first six months of this year, the report found.

2010 has also been the deadliest year of the war so far for foreign troops, according to monitoring website iCasualties.org. So far this year at least 538 foreign troops have died, compared to last year – previously the deadliest – when 521 died.

In total, 2,106 foreign troops have died, more than half of which were American.