Taliban Militants Kill 3 Workers at Aid Agency

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan â€”  Taliban militants stormed the office of an Afghan relief organization early Sunday, killing three workers and wounding four police officers, officials said.

Police said six vehicles carrying about 30 gunmen raced up to the office of the Voluntary Assn. for Rehabilitation of Afghanistan in Delaram, a town in the southwestern province of Nimruz.

“A cook, a night watchman and another employee were asleep in the first room,� said Najmudin Mojadedi, the group’s executive director. “The Taliban shot them dead.�

Another watchman was missing, Mojadedi said.

He said his group would decide whether to pull out of the region, where it has worked on agricultural projects for 14 years.

Security forces who rushed to the scene fought the gunmen for about an hour.

Four police officers were injured before the militants withdrew, Deputy Police Chief Mohammed Rassoul said.

It was unclear whether the attackers suffered any casualties.

A Taliban spokesman said the group carried out the attack and had executed a fourth man, but claimed it targeted only a police checkpoint.

His claim could not be verified.

Also Sunday, security guards in eastern Afghanistan opened fire on a crowd enraged by the U.S. military’s detention of the wife of a man allegedly linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

A 12-year-old boy was shot dead and a man was injured, officials said.

More than 1,000 protesters blocked the main road from Jalalabad to the Pakistani border, police and witnesses said.

They bore down on the camp of a Pakistani construction company repairing the highway. The company’s guards thought they were being attacked and opened fire, police said.