Gunmen kill German citizen, abduct Finnish national in Kabul

A day after deadly Taliban attacks on police checkpoints left at least 25 Afghan policemen dead, a German woman working for an international charity was killed in Kabul and another woman, from Finland, was kidnapped on Sunday, an official said.

The German woman was killed by unidentified assailants in the Afghan capital, the German Foreign Ministry confirmed.

Another woman, said to be from Finland, was missing and has possibly been kidnapped, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Najib Danish, said.

Both women were inside a guesthouse in Kabul and worked for Swedish relief organisation Operation Mercy.

In the attack on the guesthouse, a private security guard was beheaded by the assailants. Danish did not say if there was a terrorist or other criminal motive behind the assault.

Karoliina Romanoff, a spokeswoman for the Finnish Foreign Ministry, also confirmed that a Finnish citizen was kidnapped, but did not elaborate. The foreign ministry released a statement demanding "the immediate release of the kidnapped person".

The incident took place only a day after Taliban militants killed at least 25 policemen at checkpoints across southern Afghanistan late on Saturday.

Earlier this year, Taliban launched a coordinated attack on Nato-trained Afghan forces, killing 135 troops in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Despite more than 15 years of Nato military presence in Afghanistan, the war-torn country still remains one of the most dangerous places for Westerners.

--IANS

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