UN Workers Grabbed In Afghanistan
Armed men kidnapped three foreign election workers as they drove in a white sports utility vehicle in the Afghan capital on Thursday, the United Nations and Afghan officials said.
"The attackers passed the U.N. vehicle, pulled in front of it and cut it off, then jumped out of the vehicle with AK-47 assault rifles drawn," reports CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan. "The kidnappers then surrounded the vehicle, and forced the driver to lie face down on the ground as they took the hostages."
One election official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the victims were all women and believed to include one Irish citizen and one Croatian.
U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva confirmed the abductions but declined to identify the victims or give their nationalities. The motive for the attack was not clear, but Taliban rebels have in the past kidnapped Westerners, and the U.S. Embassy had issued a warning earlier this month that abductions might be attempted surrounding the Oct. 9 presidential vote.
"The precision of the incident, according to U.N. officials who spoke to CBS News, has led them to believe that the job was done by trained professionals," reports Logan. "The way that this was carried out indicates to U.N. officials that it wasn't something random or ad hoc, that these people knew exactly what they were doing."
Abdul Hadi Qasemi, an Afghan working for U.N. security, said the three were stopped and abducted by five gunmen. He said the driver of the U.N. car was also missing.
On Thursday afternoon, U.N. security staff ringed the white vehicle, found on a dusty street near an office of the joint U.N.-Afghan electoral body set up to oversee the presidential vote.
The car, clearly marked with the world body's initials, had its doors locked and there was no sign of any struggle.
The three were driven away in a dark-colored four-wheel-drive vehicle in the direction of Paghman, a district in the west of Kabul province that is considered rife with banditry, said Abdul Jamil, head of the city police's criminal department, citing witness accounts.
Police said officers manning checkpoints around the city and in neighboring districts including Paghman were alerted to check the identity of any foreigners passing their posts.
Two NATO Apache helicopter gunships were circling over the city. NATO armed vehicles were stationed on street corners in the city's upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where many aid workers and diplomats live.
Afghan security forces were stopping cars and questioning the passengers.
"All U.N. workers have been advised not to move from any of their locations. They've been told to stay put and not move about the city at this time," said Logan.
"This will definitely send chills through the heart of every foreigner," she added.
Afghanistan remains a largely lawless country in the grip of warlord militias, despite the presence of thousands of American troops and other foreign soldiers under NATO command.
About 1,000 people have died in political violence so far this year, including more than 30 American soldiers. Still, it has not seen kidnappings or suicide attacks of the intensity that is roiling Iraq.
A string of bombings and shootings blamed on militants killed at least a dozen election workers in the run up to the presidential vote.
Election day passed relatively peacefully, but optimism that the militants were a fading force was dampened Saturday when a suicide attacker armed with grenades killed an American woman and an Afghan teenager and injured three NATO soldiers in a Kabul shopping street.
Several foreign construction workers have been kidnapped along the Kabul-Kandahar highway which is being rebuilt with mainly U.S. funds.
One Turkish engineer was shot dead in a shootout between kidnappers and security guards in March. Others abducted, including Turks and Indians, were later released unharmed.