|
| An Afghan policeman, right, and a foreign security guard, left, stand near the main gate of Cure International Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, April 24, 2014. The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan says three American doctors have been killed at by an Afghan security guard who opened fire at a hospital in Kabul. The shooting at Cure International Hospital in western Kabul was the latest attack on foreign civilians in the Afghan capital this year. |
KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) -- Three Americans - a pediatrician and a father
and son - were killed by an Afghan government security officer at a
hospital Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on foreign
civilians that has rattled aid workers, contractors and journalists.
Another
American, a female medical worker, was wounded in the attack at Cure
International Hospital of Kabul, run by a U.S.-based Christian charity,
and the gunman also was wounded, officials said.
The
hospital staff performed surgery on the attacker, who had shot himself,
before he was handed over to Afghan authorities, Cure said in a
statement. However, Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the assailant
was shot by other security guards.
The attacker's motive was not clear, police said, and there was no Taliban claim of responsibility by Thursday night.
As
international troops withdraw, civilian workers increasingly fear they
are considered prime targets by militants. Some are rethinking their
safety - and even if they will stay.
All three
of the dead were identified as American doctors by Bektash Torkystani, a
Health Ministry spokesman. But the U.S. Embassy confirmed only that
three American citizens had been killed. Cure said a doctor was one of
three people killed.
Among the dead was Dr.
Jerry Umanos, a 57-year-old pediatrician from Chicago, according to his
mother-in-law, Angie Schuitema. The Lawndale Christian Health Center in
Chicago said Umanos worked there for more than 16 years before moving to
Afghanistan in 2005.
Health Minister Soraya
Dalil said the other two dead Americans were a father and son, who were
visiting, and a U.S. nurse was wounded.
The shooting continued a deadly pattern of attacks on civilian targets in Kabul.
In
January, a Taliban attack on a popular restaurant with suicide bombers
and gunmen killed more than a dozen people. In March, gunmen slipped
past security at an upscale hotel and killed several diners in its
restaurant. Two foreign journalists were killed and another wounded in
two separate attacks.
But attacks on Western
civilians have not been limited to Kabul. On April 4, an Afghan police
officer shot two Associated Press journalists working in the eastern
province of Khost, killing photographer Anja Niedringhaus and wounding
veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon.
The
hospital shooting is also the second "insider attack" by a member of
Afghan security forces targeting foreign civilians this month.
While
aid groups have been targeted before, the frequency of such attacks has
disturbed a community used to the daily risk of working in conflict
zones.
"We're not seeing aid workers running
for the airport, but many organizations are taking a careful look at
their security postures," said Graeme Smith, a senior analyst in Kabul
for the International Crisis Group. "The hard reality is that the
country is becoming more violent, and Kabul has not escaped this
pattern."
Violence has spiked overall in
Afghanistan as insurgents sought to disrupt the April 5 presidential
election and sow insecurity ahead of the troop withdrawal, nearly 13
years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's radical
Islamic regime.
Afghan civilians, of course,
have suffered the longest. A U.N. report said 2,959 Afghan civilians
were killed last year, up 7 percent. Most of those deaths were caused by
the insurgency, many of them by the thousands of roadside bombs planted
around the country.
Foreign workers who once
moved relatively freely - if carefully - in the capital are taking even
more precautions. Instead of shopping at bazaars, traveling in taxis and
lunching in cafes, many now are on virtual lockdown, shying away from
once-popular restaurants at night. Many aid organizations have long had a
system of restricting movements during heightened security risks, but
these days that state feels nearly constant.
The
increased number of attacks raises the possibility that insurgents have
embarked on a campaign against foreign aid workers to drive them away
and undermine any help the government might get after most international
troops leave at the end of the year.
"Something
rather worrying about Taliban attacks this year is that they truly are
targeting foreign civilians now," said Kate Clark, head of the Kabul
office for the Afghanistan Analysts Network. She noted, however, that
the Taliban had not claimed responsibility for Thursday's shooting nor
for two other attacks on foreigners this year.
Complicating
the picture in the hospital shooting is that it was an "insider attack"
by a member of Afghan security forces. Until recently, such attacks
mostly targeted foreign military or Afghan forces, and it has been for
years been difficult to determine whether these were Taliban-influenced
or the result of personal disputes.
After so
many years of an international presence, many Afghans appear to have
shifted views on foreigners in general from celebrating them as
liberators to resenting them as de facto occupiers whose money is drying
up now that the international mission is winding down.
The
hospital attacker, who has not been identified, served in the Afghan
Public Protection Force and was assigned as a guard at the facility,
District Police Chief Hafiz Khan said. The APPF is an armed security
force under the Interior Ministry that was created to protect foreign
organizations.
According to its website, the
Cure International Hospital was founded in 2005 by invitation of the
Afghan Health Ministry. It sees 37,000 patients a year, specializing in
child and maternity health as well as general surgery.
It is affiliated with the Christian charity Cure International, which operates in 29 countries.
Umanos,
the slain doctor, "was always working to help inner-city kids and
trying to help out any needy, poor kids anywhere," said Jeff Schuitema,
his brother-in-law.
"Our families and friends
have suffered a great loss, and our hearts are aching," said Jan
Schuitema, Umanos' wife, at the family home in Chicago. "We don't hold
any ill will towards Afghanistan in general or even the gunman who did
this. We don't know what his history is."
Mark
Knecht, Cure International's chief financial officer, told reporters
outside the group's headquarters in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, that it
"remains committed to serve the people of Afghanistan."
