Dead British aid worker named

Updated 23.03 Wed Aug 13 2008

Keywords: IRC, Taliban, aid workers, Afghanistan

A British aid worker killed in an ambush in Afghanistan has been named as Dr Jacqueline Kirk.

Dr Kirk, who died along with two other female aid workers, was a University of Ulster research fellow, the International Rescue Committee said.

The attack is the single bloodiest involving foreign aid workers in recent years in Afghanistan

The 40-year-old dual UK and Canadian citizen was affiliated to the university's International Conflict Research centre, based at its Coleraine campus.

The other women, a Canadian and a Trinidadian-American, who worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), were killed alongside their local driver while travelling north towards Kabul through the province of Logar.

Abdullah Wardak, governor of the province, said the women and their driver were killed by small-arms fire from another car.

"We are stunned and profoundly saddened by this tragic loss," said George Rupp, president of the IRC in a statement.

"Words are inadequate to express our sympathy for the families and loved ones of the victims and our devoted team of humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan," he said.

The attack is the single bloodiest involving foreign aid workers in recent years in Afghanistan.

Violence in the country has risen sharply since 2006 when the ousted Taliban relaunched their insurgency.

The IRC's work in Afghanistan focuses on providing returning refugees with shelter, water and sanitation, and developing the health care system.

But the agency has now suspended all its humanitarian aid programmes in Afghanistan indefinitely, the IRC said.

The increase in violence has also forced other aid agencies to restrict their humanitarian and development work at a time when drought and high prices are putting more people under pressure.

Many schools and clinics have closed and significant numbers of people have become internally displaced.

Aid agencies have been attacked and 19 Afghan NGO staff killed this year.

The rise in violence comes despite the presence of more than 61,000 foreign troops and over 140,000 Afghan forces.