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3 American Doctors Killed by Guard at Afghan Hospital 3 American Doctors Killed by Guard at Afghan Hospital
(about 3 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan police officer shot and killed three American doctors at a hospital here on Thursday, according to Afghan police officials. KABUL, Afghanistan — Three American doctors were killed Thursday morning when an Afghan police officer turned his gun on them at a private hospital in Kabul, an attack that underscored the growing frustration with the Western presence here a decade after the war began.
The attack took place at the Cure International Hospital in Kabul, a 100-bed facility that specializes in treating disabled Afghans and has a maternal care unit with support for premature births. The police officer had recently been assigned to guard the hospital. The shooting took place at Cure International Hospital, a 100-bed facility that specializes in the treatment of disabled Afghan children and women’s health issues, including fistula and premature birth. One of the physicians who worked at the facility was hosting three visiting doctors from America, said Kabul police chief General Mohammad Zahir. The trio had snapped a picture in front of the hospital’s sign before entering, witnesses said.
Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the Afghan guard was shot and wounded in the incident and was being treated in the hospital under guard. However, another Afghan official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the officer tried to shoot himself with his own weapon after the attack. A government official said the police officer, Ainuddin, a two-year veteran of the department, had only recently been assigned to the unit guarding the hospital. Witnesses and officials said he fired on the doctors when they entered a security vestibule at the entrance of the facility, managing to kill three of the male doctors and wound a female doctor. The attacker then entered the interior courtyard, where he continued to fire at foreigners.
Cure, a Christian-based charity, runs hospitals in 10 countries. Other officers present wounded him before he could kill anyone else, although one security official said he shot himself.
Mr. Seddiqi said the motive for the attack was unknown. A police official identified the killer as Ayudin, from Laghman Province, a two-year veteran of the police force in Kabul; like many Afghans, he goes by only one name. The Taliban did not immediately claim credit, raising the posibility that the attacker was not a member of the insurgency but one of a growing class of Afghans disenchanted with the American presence. Bitterness has spilled into the narrative about the American occupation here, as fears of the military withdrawal and its attendant uncertainty trump the money and resources that have been showered on the nation by the coalition.
It was the second apparently unprovoked attack on foreigners by Afghan police officers in recent weeks. On April 4, an officer shot and killed a photographer for The Associated Press, Anja Niedringhaus, and wounded a correspondent, Kathy Gannon. The attack presented another reminder for expats living in Kabul that the threat was no longer confined to the Taliban.
The Taliban denied any responsibility for that earlier attack and did not initially claim responsibility for the attack on the hospital. Less than three weeks ago, an award-winning photographer for the Associated Press, Anja Niedringhaus, was killed by a police officer at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan. Her colleague, the reporter Kathy Gannon, was also wounded in the attack. A month before that, a Swedish journalist was fatally shot in a heavily guarded area of Kabul by an unknown assailant.
“We are aware of this shooting at the Cure hospital and our investigation is ongoing, but we do not know if it was carried out by our men,” the Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said when reached by telephone. The attacks have been reminiscent of the so-called green on blue shootings perpetrated by Afghan soldiers against their coalition allies. Two years ago, a surge in these insider attacks threatened to derail the training mission central to the American military withdrawal planned for this year.
Last month, the insurgents attacked what they claimed was a Christian church in Kabul but instead hit the building next door to it, which was heavily guarded and repelled the attackers. Their apparent target was described by neighbors as a Christian-run day care center, and the dozen or so American residents there had at least five young children, and no guards. But as fewer and fewer coalition soldiers leave their heavily fortified bases, and as new strategies are employed to safeguard against insider attacks, those incidents have all but subsided. Instead, foreign workers operating in Afghanistan provide some of the most convenient targets for those seeking to kill Westerners, though the number of civilians targeted still pales in comparison to military deaths.
Other Americans with children lived in houses in the neighborhood that were affiliated with the day care center; they declined to talk with journalists. Beyond the recent killing of journalists, a concerted effort by the Taliban to target locations popular with expatriates was evident for months in the run-up to the presidential elections in early April. A January assault on the Taverna Restaurant in central Kabul left 21 dead, most of them foreigners, while fatal shootings at the luxury Serena Hotel last month left nine dead. Such incidents have put the thousands of foreigners living in Kabul on watch.
The unpredictable nature of the violence has prompted some embassies to redouble their security efforts, and those living outside of the official bubble to limit their exposure. To the worry of many Afghans, the shooting Thursday is likely to further undermine the efforts of outsiders to aid the war-torn country.
Still, the scene of the attack presented a somewhat troubling case study in the waning patience of most Afghans for the continued Western presence here. Amid the two-dozen police officers clustered around the entrance to the hospital, a group of men whose wives and other female relatives were patients at the hospital gathered.
While some expressed a fear that the facility might shut down in the wake of the killings, leaving Afghans with the poorly funded and unhygienic public hospitals to turn to, others expressed little sympathy for the deaths.
“The foreigners have been here too long,” said Fawad, whose female relative was in the hospital undergoing surgery. “People are tired of them.”
A car pulled up a short while later, and the driver was told by police to leave the area. When the police explained that an officer had shot dead three foreigners, the driver replied: “Good for him that he killed the infidels.”
Not everyone at the scene held hostility. Several Afghans expressed shame in their countryman, and worried about their ability to seek treatment that typical Afghan hospitals cannot perform.
“This is so bad,” said Ahmad Shekib, Kabul resident whose aunt had just delivered a baby. “We will lose this source of health services. These were good people who had left their families and had come all the way from U.S. to help Afghans. It is so shameful.”
Some worried that the attack would harm the very people the foreigners are trying to help.
“We will lose this source of proper health service, too,” said Mohammed Safar, from Ghazni Province, who idled by the entrance. “Who bears the brunt? Poor Afghans. Rich Afghans can afford taking their patients to Dubai and Europe. Where will we go?”
Cure International started in 1998 in Kenya, and now operates hospitals and programs in 29 countries around the world. The organization focuses on health issues that often afflict the developing world, including club foot, cleft palate and untreated burns, according to its website.
The organization began operating in Afghanistan in 2005, setting up a hospital in West Kabul that treats around 37,000 patients a year.
Among the patients receiving care now inside the walls of the compound is the shooter himself, who was admitted after the attack.