A
SENIOR MI6 officer and a group of British aid officials were forced to
flee after they were held up at gunpoint by bandits in Afghanistan.
The incident is one of a series in recent weeks that coalition
commanders fear are making work in the ravaged country increasingly
difficult.
In a separate attack, a group of US Marines came under fire from what
is thought to have been the same bandit group about 30 miles from Kabul on
the road to Jalalabad.
Fears for the security of coalition aid workers are now so great that
SAS, Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and American special forces are to be
used as helicopter-borne rescue troops.
The incident involving the British intelligence officer took place
shortly before Christmas, but did not become known until this weekend.
A reconnaissance team from the Department for International Development
(DFID), together with officials from the local Afghan electricity company
and the MI6 officer, were visiting a power plant east of Kabul.
The DFID team were in a Land Rover, with four British embassy officials
including the MI6 officer in a second 4x4 vehicle behind.
The convoy rounded a bend and was surrounded by armed men who forced
its members from the vehicles and ordered them to lie on the road. The
Afghan staff and the MI6 officer are understood to have persuaded the
bandits not to harm the aid team.
The bandits stole the embassy vehicle, with mobile telephones,
computers, wallets and other valuables, before taking the keys to the
other vehicle and driving off. However, the embassy staff negotiated
permission to remove a satellite telephone from the vehicle.
A complaint about the incident was made to the Afghan interior ministry
and the stolen vehicle was recovered three days later.
A spokesman for DFID said: “We do not think there was any political
motive here, just theft.”
The American soldiers were fired on with AK-47 derivative rifles as
they patrolled. They returned fire with M-16 assault rifles and handguns,
and managed to reverse away at speed. None of the soldiers was hurt.
A Pentagon spokesman said security issues in Afghanistan were
“shifting”. “We still face the obvious threats from terrorism and
politically motivated attacks,” he said. “But clearly when you bring
people and kit into a very poor region, it’s attractive to some people who
want to steal.
“The same thing happened across the Balkans. We will respond hard and
fast to it if we can, and pursue those we think are
responsible.”
