Gunmen in a red Corolla blocked a van of French aid workers in the Afghan capital, kidnapping one and fatally shooting an Afghan who tried to thwart the abduction by grabbing an attacker’s machine gun.
The kidnapping on Monday adds to the increasing anxiety felt by the international community in Kabul, which has seen a rise in abductions and targeted shootings of foreigners in the last month.
Three assailants, two of them armed, tried to kidnap two French citizens riding in a small van, but after a scuffle the kidnappers grabbed only one, said Mohammad Daud Amin, a police commander.
The kidnapping took place as two French aid workers were being driven from a residence rented by the aid group AFRANE — Amitie Franco-Afghane, or French-Afghan friendship — said Etienne Gille, AFRANE’s president.
“The car was blocked by another car that was driving the wrong way,” from which “an armed man emerged,” Gille said. AFRANE’s employee managed to escape, while another French aid worker was taken, he said.
The French Foreign Ministry said French officials in Paris and Kabul were working “to win the liberation of our compatriot as soon as possible.”
An Afghan man — identified by the Interior Ministry as an employee of the country’s intelligence service — saw the kidnapping in process and tried to intervene, witnesses said.
“He grabbed the machine gun of one of the kidnappers, who opened fire, burning his hand. After that, the kidnapper shot him three times in the chest,” said Mohammad Shafi, who owns a shop near the kidnapping site.
One of the kidnappers opened fire and killed the intelligence official, Amin said.
Gille declined to provide the name of the organization for which the kidnapped man worked but said he was in his 30s. The man, a French national, had been in Afghanistan about a week, Gille said, adding he believed it was his first time in the country.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said Taliban militants were not involved in the kidnapping.
Kidnappings by criminal groups in Afghanistan have spiked over the last year because of the lucrative ransoms that are paid to free hostages. Wealthy Afghans are typically targeted in the kidnappings, which are rarely reported in the media. But criminal groups have increasingly set their sites on Westerners in recent months.
Kabul has seen a spike in crime against Westerners. Criminal gangs also kidnapped a former Afghan presidential candidate and the son of the president of a large Afghan bank. The two were rescued by Afghan intelligence officials.
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