FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2003
UN stops clearing mines in south Afghanistan
AP
KABUL: The United Nations said on Thursday it had suspended mine clearing operations in a part of southern Afghanistan where gunmen ambushed a convoy of deminers earlier this week.
Operations of the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan were halted in "insecure areas" on the road from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar after Monday's attack in Zabul province.
The gunmen shot two Afghan deminers in an ambulance after a failed bid to find foreigners in the group, UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told a news conference in the capital.
"In what appears to be a deliberate and premeditated attack, six assailants ambushed the convoy and stopped the last vehicle, which was the ambulance, looking for international personnel," Almeida e Silva said. "They opened fire when they were told there were no expatriates in the group."
The attack was the latest in a series of assaults on deminers and foreign aid workers in this volatile country.
On Saturday, gunmen opened fire on another Afghan demining group, the Afghan Development Agency, in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. One deminer was killed in that attack and another who was seriously wounded is still in a coma, Almeida e Silva said.
On April 22, gunmen with rockets and automatic weapons fired at a UN mine clearing vehicle near Tangi, 50 kilometres south of the eastern city of Jalalabad. Two Afghans were injured by a rocket in that attack.
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