Lone survivor says Taleban attack began with hitchhikers

The lone survivor of the killing of 10 members of the International Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has described the horror of their last moments.

The driver, called Safiullah, revealed that it was an act of kindness - a lift to strangers - that would lead to the murders.

At his home in Kabul, the 28-year-old recounted the events that have left him traumatised.

They were resting in the shade of trees exhausted but relieved they had managed to get their vehicles through a swollen river when the attackers appeared. From nowhere, men began shouting orders and firing over the medical team's heads. Leader Tom Little, a doctor, called out "What's happening?" before a blow to the head with an AK-47 rifle sent him reeling to the ground. As he struggled to get up, he was fatally shot in the chest.

One by one, the nine other members of his team were executed.

The body of Dr Karen Woo, a 36-year-old Briton who was due to marry, and those of six Americans, two Afghans, and one German, were found in the Koran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan on August 6.

The IAM team had spent the previous two weeks covering about 160km - much of it on foot and horseback - through the Hindu Kush mountains, bringing medical care to impoverished villagers in Nuristan province. The day before they were killed, the team was guided back by locals to their vehicles, so they could start the final leg of their trip home.

They soon stopped to give three men a lift. Two of the men set off on their way when the vehicles were blocked by a river, while the third "quickly disappeared", Safiullah said.

Suddenly 10 gunmen shouting "satellite, satellite" - a demand to surrender their phones - appeared and the driver recognised the third pedestrian from earlier. They seemed to be motivated, skilled and organised militants, some wearing commando-style gear, he said.

After killing Little, the gunmen turned their attention to two of the three female members of the team who were hiding inside one of the vehicles and threw a grenade at it, killing them both. Then they shot the team's Afghan cook. As the gunmen murdered the rest of the group one by one, the driver begged for his life, raising his arms in the air as he recited verses from the Koran. Safiullah believed their commander - a "tyrant with a cruel face" - was Pakistani because he yelled "Jaldee! Jaldee!", or hurry up, a term more common over the border than in Afghanistan. But the rest of the gunmen seemed to come from Nuristan province because they conversed in the local dialect Pashaye.

The killers took his wedding ring and $50 from his pocket before loading him down with weapons and luggage for an eight-hour walk. On a radio, one of the gunmen reported back: "Everything's finished. We killed them."

After being met by another group, the driver was interrogated before a gunman kicked him to the ground and told him he was free.

While the killings were initially blamed on a robbery, the Taleban claimed the credit for them, insisting the workers were trying to convert people to Christianity, a statement IAM strenuously denied.

Dirk Frans, executive director of the NGO, has since said IAM believes its workers were victims of "an opportunistic ambush by a group of non-local fighters".

- INDEPENDENT