Deadly attack in Afghanistan on Chinese underlines dangers

JALAW GIR, Afghanistan -- The slaughter of 11 sleeping Chinese road workers Thursday was the deadliest attack on foreign civilians since the fall of the Taliban, and dealt a blow to U.S. claims that Afghanistan is becoming safer ahead of milestone elections this fall.

The assault in the relatively tranquil north also underlined the dangers for thousands of foreigners helping to rebuild Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government is fighting off an insurgency by Taliban rebels and their al-Qaida allies. Aid workers warned the bloodshed could prompt a further pullback of their activities to the capital, Kabul.

The United Nations condemned the "cold-blooded" attack in Kunduz province and halted registration of voters there until at least Saturday -- a further setback in preparations for the September elections, with still only one-third of the estimated 10 million eligible Afghan voters signed up. It also told staff to stay off the roads.

Although on a smaller scale, attacks on foreign civilians have intensified in Afghanistan since a similar pattern of targeting expatriates emerged in Iraq, where the Americans are also trying to achieve a democratic transition that could allow U.S. troops to withdraw.

The Chinese were attacked just after midnight at a camp where about 100 of them stay in a patch of desert near Jalaw Gir, 120 miles north of Kabul.

Six to eight assailants

Six to eight assailants killed an Afghan guard at the unfenced camp and then raked the Chinese men with a hail of rifle fire, said Mutaleb Beg, the Kunduz police chief.

"They died in their beds, most of them with stomach and head wounds," Beg said. Nine died on the spot and two more in a hospital. Four others were wounded and in stable condition.

On Thursday afternoon, dozens of grim-faced survivors sat on the ground outside their camp with luggage, waiting near a fleet of bulldozers and trucks to be evacuated to the city of Kunduz. Many had arrived just the day before.

One of the tents was half-cleared of evidence of the attack. There were pools of drying blood among scattered bedding and clothing.

Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim -- acting president while Karzai visits the United States -- blamed "the al-Qaida network and its allies" for the killings.

But a man who says he is a spokesman for the Taliban militia, which hosted al-Qaida in Afghanistan when it ruled the country, said the Taliban were not involved.

"It doesn't have any link with the Taliban," Hamid Agha told The Associated Press.

Beg pointed a finger at supporters of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who have also teamed up with the Taliban and have vowed to oust Karzai's U.S.-backed government.

Several thousand foreigners including diplomats and security guards live in Afghanistan, managing key reconstruction projects, advising government ministries and running myriad programs for the United Nations.

Most spend their time behind heavy security in Kabul, and those who venture beyond do so increasingly only with armed guards. Thousands of Interior Ministry troops protect the U.S.-funded reconstruction of the country's main highway from Kabul to Kandahar.

As a result, most victims of attacks have been Afghans, and only nine foreigners had died before Thursday, including three European medical relief workers killed in northwestern Badghis province last week.

There have been two suicide attacks this year -- both against NATO-led peacekeepers -- but no major car-bombings.

Still, Afghan militants have increasingly been using roadside bombs, also a frequent weapon in the Iraqi insurgency. On Thursday, a vehicle carrying U.N. anti-drug officials in northern Takhar province was hit in such an attack but no one was wounded.

The U.S. military has attributed the escalation in attacks by Afghan rebels to the approaching elections rather than the Iraqi example.

With the landmark vote just three months away, aid groups worry the violence is spreading to the north, destabilizing the few areas in which they felt safe.

"It's possible agencies might start shutting down programs," said Barbara Stapleton of ACBAR, an umbrella group for relief groups in Afghanistan. "With the limited resources the government has, it's hard to see how security can improve before the elections."

A small contingent of German troops are based in Kunduz, NATO's first step in a plan to expand across the north to help provide security for the vote.

But countries have been reluctant to come forward with the soldiers and equipment needed to expand the 6,400-strong force farther from Kabul into the north, where warlord militias still hold sway.

Meanwhile, the 20,000-strong U.S.-led force is focused on the south and east, where it has killed dozens of militants in recent weeks and lost five soldiers of its own.

The road contractors worked for the China Railway Shisiju Group, which last year won a World Bank contract to rebuild the highway from Doshi, in neighboring Baghlan province, to the Tajik border, part of a $22.5 million infrastructure project.

Chinese President Hu Jintao "strongly condemned the inhumane and brutal attack" and urged a swift investigation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

Liu said Chinese companies, which are also working on irrigation projects, would not be forced out of Afghanistan but would need better protection.

"China will not give in to any terrorism," he said. "It should be a lesson for us."