Afghan militants kill 6 local staffers of French aid group

Unknown gunmen on Wednesday shot dead six local staffers working for the French aid group ACTED on rural development projects in northern Afghanistan. The provincial police chief Nabi Jan Mullahkhail said in a press statement that the staffers were dragged from their car in the Pashtun Kot district of Faryab province, which borders Turkmenistan, before being gunned down. The victims were traveling in a car from the provincial capital Maimana to Almar district, he said, adding that Taliban suspects chased them and their car stopped in Pashtun Kot. Meanwhile, spokesman for ACTED (the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) Adrien Tomarchio said in a statement in Paris that "Six Afghan employees were killed following an ambush that targeted a team of seven people. One person was injured." "They were killed in the course of their work to support development in the north. We deplore the deaths of our colleagues while they were carrying out their duties," the spokesman added. ACTED is a non-governmental organization founded in 1993 that runs 34 reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and many across the developing world. Earlier this year, a French employee of ACTED was held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two months before being safely released