Two foreign nationals, believed to be Westerners, and an Afghan were killed in a shoot-out in broad daylight in central Kabul yesterday, the city’s deputy police chief said.
It was unclear what prompted the exchange of fire outside the offices of the international courier company DHL, Alishah Ahmadzai said. Another senior official said, on condition of anonymity, that the shootout erupted after an argument between the foreigners and their Afghan guards.
“Two foreigners and one Afghan have been killed,” Ahmadzai said.
Two people were also wounded, he said, without giving their identities.
A police investigator said two of the dead were killed in a four-wheeled drive vehicle just outside the office of the courier company. They were killed just after they left the office and got into the vehicle, another witness said.
At least one of the dead foreigners was an employee of DHL, a man who said he was a friend told reporters.
The vehicle was covered in a large tarpaulin as police removed the bodies and drove them away, a reporter said.
One of the bodies had been slumped in the front seat of the vehicle, the reporter said. Blood was pooled just outside as well as in the front and back seats and the front windows were blown out, he said.
It was the second fatal shooting in the city since a British South African aid worker was shot dead on Monday while she was walking to work.
The extremist Taliban movement, waging an insurgency against the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, claimed responsibility for the killing but authorities have not confirmed they were involved.
Security has plummeted in Afghanistan with insurgent attacks and crime surging.
Foreign nationals are rarely killed in Kabul, although there have been several kidnappings.
The aid worker, Gayle Williams, 34, was shot several times in a western suburb, said the SERVE Afghanistan aid organization for which she had been working.
The Taliban claimed she was killed because SERVE was “preaching Christianity,” a charge rejected by the group that works to help disabled Afghans.
Deteriorating security has prompted many of the thousands of aid groups and other international organizations in Afghanistan to step up security measures, with most foreigners limiting their travel and employing guards.
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