Briton Working in Afghanistan Dies in Drive-By Attack

A British man working for the Afghan government was killed by unknown assailants in a drive-by shooting late Monday, the first such deadly attack on a foreign national here this year.

Steven MacQueen, 41, an advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, was struck by gunfire in his truck outside a popular United Nations guesthouse.

“Mr. MacQueen was driving a ministry car and ... he was alone when two unknown cars pulled up to him and opened fire,” said Gen. Sher Agha, a police commander in Kabul, the capital.

A British Embassy spokesperson said the attackers’ motive was unclear. But a security official said it appeared that MacQueen, whose white truck was similar to the kind driven by staff members of the U.N. and other aid organizations, was the intended victim.

“It appears that this was not a random shooting and that Mr. MacQueen was being targeted specifically,” said Ian Saunders, regional security advisor for the Afghanistan NGO Security Office, an agency that advises nongovernmental organizations that operate in the country.

MacQueen worked on a World Bank-funded project that helps Afghans in rural areas obtain financing. Colleagues remembered him as a cheerful man who was dedicated to helping Afghans in the poorest part of the country.

Saunders said that as a result of the attack, he was advising organizations employing foreigners to vary their transportation routes and limit their movement.

The last similar attack on a foreigner occurred in the eastern province of Kunar in December, when a Turkish engineer working on a U.S.-sponsored road project was killed.

In October, a suicide bomber killed an American woman and an Afghan girl on a busy Kabul street that is used mainly by foreigners.

The worst attack against foreigners in recent months occurred in August, when a vehicle loaded with explosives drove into the guesthouse of American security firm DynCorp, killing 10 people.

“It has been very quiet in Kabul for many months. I was starting to feel quite normal and not paranoid about security issues, but now that has changed,” said a U.N. worker who asked not to be identified.

Many have considered the capital, which is patrolled by thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, a safe zone.

But security analysts predict that criminal activity will increase when the brutal Afghan winter ends.

“As the road passes open up, we will see an increase in crime, whether it is smuggling of illegal weapons, narcotics or terrorist activity,” Saunders said.

“We want the international community to be on high alert,” he said.