KABUL - Eight foreign medical workers, including "several" Americans, were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan's remote northeast, police and officials said on Saturday, with the attack claimed by the Taliban. A Christian aid group said it appeared those killed were members of one of its mobile eye clinics which had been travelling in northeastern Nuristan province and was headed back for Kabul after providing eye care for local Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings and accused the medical workers of proselytising Christianity. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Reuters from an undisclosed location that bibles translated into Dari had been found with the foreigners. Dirk Frans, executive director of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), said it had been told the bodies of eight foreigners - five men and three women - and two Afghans had been recovered. "This actually sounds very similar to our Nuristan eye camp team," Frans told Reuters, adding that IAM had last had contact with the team's leader on Wednesday. "This means it might have happened on Thursday," he said. Frans said the 12-member team had consisted of 6 US nationals, one British national, a German and four Afghans. Two Afghan staff members had escaped alive, he said.
