Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on a remote U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed eight of them execution-style, a police official said Friday.
The victims, who worked for the U.S. military as laborers in the mountainous Korangal area of Kunar province, were killed Thursday while driving home from work, said Abdul Saboor, Kunar’s deputy police chief.
Gunmen stopped the workers’ car, searched them and took about $6,000 before gunning them down, said Salehzai Didar, Kunar’s governor. Two workers escaped, he said.
“This was a shocking attack against these poor people,” Saboor said.
Saboor did not identify the attackers, other than to describe them as “the enemy.”
Al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents operate in eastern Afghan regions bordering Pakistan.
Compound raided
U.S. and Afghan troops, meanwhile, raided a compound linked to bomb makers early Friday, killing one suspected militant and detaining four others, the U.S.-led coalition said.
During the operation in the eastern Khost province village of Bodakhel, one militant pointed a gun at soldiers, who shot him dead, a coalition statement said. Troops found explosives, detonation cords and multiple blasting caps.
No U.S. or Afghan troops were hurt.
Afghanistan this year has faced its deadliest surge in violence since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime five years ago for hosting Osama bin Laden.
On Thursday, suicide bombings in the southern province of Helmand killed a British soldier, two children and a policeman.