Six Afghan Red Cross workers killed by suspected IS gunmen

Six Afghan Red Cross aid workers have been killed in an ambush in the country's north by a suspected Islamic state gunmen, while travelling to a remote area to deliver humanitarian aid.

Three vehicles carrying eight International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) employees were travelling through Dasht-e Leili, a desert in Jowzjan province, when they came under fire, according to the provincial governor, Lotfullah Azizi.

According to the Guardian, three drivers and three other personnel were killed, and two are missing.

The ICRC in Afghanistan confirmed the killings and said it was putting its activities across the country on hold while it assessed what had happened.

Its director-general, Yves Daccord, described the incident as "the worst attack against us since 20 years. We are all outraged and so sad."

The ICRC vehicles were clearly marked when they were ambushed outside Turkman Qudoq village by militants carrying Kalashnikov rifles, said the provincial police chief, Rahmatullah Turkistani. He said a local delegation of elders was investigating the incident.

The attack underscores the danger facing NGOs in Afghanistan.

Fifteen aid workers were killed in Afghanistan last year in more than 200 incidents of violence, kidnappings and killings directed against humanitarian organisations, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

Northern Afghanistan in particular has become increasingly dangerous for aid workers. In 2013, militants shot and killed six employees of the French charity ACTED in Faryab. In 2015, nine Afghan staff members with the Czech organisation People in Need were shot in a guesthouse in Balkh.

In April 2015 the bullet-riddled bodies of five Afghan workers for Save the Children were found after they were abducted in the strife-torn southern province of Uruzgan.