Two gunmen killed a female foreign aid worker in Kabul on Monday in an unusual drive-by shooting that heightened fears over the worsening security situation in and around the Afghan capital. Witnesses and Afghan security officials said the incident occurred about 8 a.m. when two gunmen on a motorcycle drove up to the woman as she walked to work in the Kart-e-Char neighborhood of Kabul and opened fire with automatic weapons. The rapid-fire shooting left the woman crumpled on a sidewalk in front of a residential compound frequented by foreigners, witnesses said.
Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, identified the woman as a South African citizen who worked with an international aid organization focused on helping the disabled. Bashary said she had lived in the neighborhood where she was killed for at least several months.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the woman had been targeted because she worked for a Christian aid organization. "This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan. Our leaders issued a decree to kill this woman," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press.