AFP

Kabul

The latest killing of foreigners in Afghanistan has raised troubling questions as US-led troops leave the country.

Twice in the last month, rogue policemen have opened fire on foreign civilians in unprovoked attacks that join a growing list of assaults deliberately targeting international workers.

On Thursday, a police officer on duty outside the CURE International Hospital in Kabul shot dead three Americans including a doctor, in an attack that left many expatriates fearing that nowhere in Afghanistan is now safe.

“What can you do when an individual policeman starts shooting like that?” Emanuele Nannini, co-ordinator at the Italian-run Emergency Hospital, another respected medical facility in Afghan capital, said.

“Perhaps he was just a crazy individual, had some personal grievances or religious reasons, but it is very difficult to explain. This was a good doctor who didn’t deserve to die.

“Afghanistan has actually been quite safe for foreign doctors and nurses, so it was such a strange attack.”

Taliban militants, engaged in a bloody insurgency against the US-led foreign intervention in Afghanistan, did not claim responsibility for the shooting, and the motive
remains unclear.

“The simple truth is there are a lot of people with guns in this country — including the police — and that creates a major risk in itself,” said Nannini, who vowed that Emergency’s work helping war victims would not be affected.

The range of targets hit this year include Kabul’s most prestigious hotel, a restaurant popular with western diplomats, a guesthouse used by a US anti-landmine charity and a Swedish radio journalist shot in daylight on a busy street

The attack on the Taverna du Liban restaurant in January was among the most shocking as gunmen mowed down diners and staff, killing 21 people including 13 foreigners enjoying an evening out at a low-key social venue.

Earlier this month a police commander killed an Associated Press (AP) photographer and badly injured a journalist as they covered election preparations in the eastern
province of Khost.

That shooting followed an attack on the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul which left four foreigners and one local AFP reporter and his family among nine dead when four gunmen evaded security checks and ran amok in the restaurant.

“After each attack, everyone says it is a new Taliban tactic to target foreigners, but incidents like the hospital shooting are very particular and don’t always prove a trend,” said Justine Piquemal, director of ACBAR, which represents many aid groups.

“Many Afghans fear for the future of their country as Nato troops withdraw and as the level of foreign support seems uncertain. That doesn’t explain these incidents, and we have to be very careful.

“Security is already so high and sometimes we can’t do anymore, but we are determined to keep working.

“We have to accept that we are seen as a part of the conflict, and so we will very sadly have casualties.”

Embassies, aid organisations and international institutions have erected yet more barriers around their fortified compounds and reduced travel — further curtailing their ability to work at a moment when Afghanistan’s needs are greatest.

An exodus of foreign workers would be damaging as the country faces anxious times with ongoing presidential elections and the departure of 51,000 US-led Nato combat troops by December.

If Afghanistan cannot develop as a functioning state, the risk is economic collapse and a return to the extremism and instability of the
Taliban era.

“When civilian doctors are shot by police, the threat is everywhere and nothing is off-limits,” said one security company employee based in Kabul.

“We can protect our clients, but if they can’t get out and do their work, will they stay?”