Afghan Red Cross attack deadly

KABUL - Two insurgents attacked a compound housing the International Committee of the Red Cross in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing an Afghan guard before security forces rescued seven foreigners.

The Red Cross has rarely been hit in the more than 12 years since the Afghan war began in late 2001. Considered one of the most respected agencies in the country, it has good relations with all parties to the conflict, including the Taliban, who allow it to operate in areas under their control.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said the three women and four men were safe after police killed an insurgent who was holed up inside the compound. He said one of the male aid workers was lightly wounded.

The other assailant detonated a suicide bomb vest at the building’s gate at the beginning of the attack, killing an Afghan security guard who worked for the Red Cross, Sediqi said.

“We are very concerned that the office has been attacked deliberately, knowing that the ICRC is a neutral organization working for almost three decades to provide humanitarian assistance,” said Robin Waudo, communications coordinator for the Red Cross in Afghanistan. “We have been here through the different conflicts that happened here and we are known by parties to the conflicts.

“We are surprised just like most that an ICRC office can be attacked when it is known by most parties that we are not a political organization,”he said.

The Taliban and other militants have unleashed a wave of bombings and assassinations around the country, testing the ability of the Afghan security forces to respond with reduced help from international forces, who have begun a withdrawal that will see most foreign troops gone by the end of 2014.

The attack Wednesday in the eastern city of Jalalabad was the second major assault against an international organization in five days. A militant attack against a U.N.-affiliated group in Kabul last week killed three people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and it is unclear why insurgents would want to target the Red Cross, which not only carries out humanitarian work around Afghanistan but also is the conduit for families to communicate with detainees taken off the battlefield, including the Taliban.

A spokesman for the Red Cross in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib Rahimi, said all of the organization’s foreign staff members inside the compound were safe. He said officials were checking to see if any Afghan staff members were there at the time, but noted that local employees had left for the day an hour before the attack. The foreigners live in the compound, he said.

A total of 35 Red Cross staff members, including the seven foreigners, work at the facility, he said.

Afghanistan is the site of one of the Red Cross’ biggest operations worldwide, with some 1,800 staff members working in 17 locations, the organization said.

The Red Cross warned last month that security was deteriorating across Afghanistan as militants flood the battlefield and conduct attacks in what could be the most important spring fighting season of the nearly 12-year-old war.

This year is crucial for Afghanistan, as the U.S.-led coalition is expected to hand over most security responsibilities in the country to its own security forces in the late spring. Foreign military forces are then expected to begin a withdrawal to be completed by the end of the year.

Earlier Wednesday, seven insurgents wearing police uniforms and bomb-laden vests attacked a government compound in Panjshir, a usually secure province in eastern Afghanistan. One police officer was killed and another was wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed Wednesday that up to 90 Afghans are being held at a British military facility in Afghanistan, but he rejected comparisons between their detention and that of detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hammond said the number of suspected insurgents held by British forces at their base in Camp Bastion was higher than normal because of problems in handing them over to the Afghan legal system.

The British government argues that, unlike those held in Cuba, detainees in Camp Bastion are in the process of being handed over to the Afghan authorities who will then decide what action to take against them within their legal framework.

But British lawyers acting for some of the men want them charged or released, arguing that they have been held for up to 14 months without the start of formal legal proceedings.

Information for this article was contributed by Patrick Quinn, Rahim Faiez, Amir Shah and Rahmat Gul of The Associated Press and by Stephen Castle of The New York Times.