3 U.N. Election Aides Abducted in Afghanistan

Gunmen kidnapped three foreign United Nations election workers Thursday in a busy district of the Afghan capital patrolled by NATO-led peacekeepers.

The staff members of a U.N. election training program were abducted in the Karte Parwan district on a side road near a heavily traveled main street that connects the city’s airport to the Intercontinental Hotel. Troops in the International Security Assistance Force frequently drive through the district.

The election workers’ Afghan driver, who was treated for injuries after the kidnapping, said the abductors struck him on the back of the head with a Kalashnikov rifle, said an election worker who requested anonymity.

The office of U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard in New York identified the kidnapped workers as Angelito Nayan, a Filipino; Annetta Flanigan, who holds dual British and Irish citizenship; and Shqipe Hebibi, a woman from Kosovo province in Serbia-Montenegro.

A man claiming to speak for a Taliban splinter group, Jamiat Jaishal Muslemeen, said it was responsible for the kidnapping, Associated Press reported. The claim could not be verified.

Kidnappings are rare in Kabul, which is considered one of the safest cities for foreigners in Afghanistan, largely because it is patrolled by several thousand troops from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Mohammed Feraidoon, a shopkeeper who witnessed the abduction, said the kidnappers were in a black sport utility vehicle with black-tinted windows. The SUV sped in front of the U.N. vehicle and stopped, the shopkeeper said.

“We all ignored that because we always see cars driving fast on this street,” Feraidoon said.

He said two men, one of them in a military uniform, emerged from the SUV.

“The guy in the military uniform had a Kalashnikov, and I don’t know whether the other guy was armed or not,” Feraidoon said.

“They grabbed the people who were in the car and put them inside the black car that they had. They beat the driver as well and then drove off,” he said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said security had been tightened all over Kabul after the incident.

“We have blocked all roads that go out of Kabul and we check each and every vehicle that leaves Kabul,” Mashal said. “The police are working really hard.”

He said Afghan intelligence agents had tracked the kidnappers as far as the village of Arghandi, outside the capital on the road to Kandahar, a southern city that was once a Taliban stronghold.

“But unfortunately, the intelligence agents lost them,” Mashal said.

“We are looking to catch them soon.”

District police commander Abdul Khaliq Samimi said investigators didn’t know whether the U.N. driver was involved in the kidnappings but were checking into the possibility.

The white sport utility vehicle in which the victims were riding was clearly marked with a blue “U.N.” and had a U.N. license plate.

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Times staff writer Maggie Farley at the United Nations contributed to this report.