KABUL, 16 February 2004 — Suspected Taleban gunmen shot dead four Afghan deminers in an ambush in western Afghanistan, the worst incident targeting aid workers in six months, officials said yesterday. The deaths follow several days of violence in southeast Afghanistan that killed three people, a US soldier among them.

The four worked for the Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation, a local partner of the United Nations, which condemned the killings.

“The special representative of the secretary-general, Jean Arnault, expresses his shock and outrage at the brutal and cold-blooded murder of the four,” UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

“The cowardly act committed against them cannot be tolerated.” Three of the men died immediately when their two-vehicle convoy was sprayed with bullets on Saturday in the western province of Farah, and the fourth died after radioing in news of the attack.

“If these killers hoped to stop demining in Afghanistan, they should know that our commitment to this work is absolute,” said Dan Kelly, manager of the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan.

Local officials blamed the attack on the Taleban, saying it was not a robbery.

Disarmament Angers Villagers

In Panjsheer Valley, an assortment of heavy weapons were removed yesterday as villagers complained that the disarmament process amounted to a loss of their heritage.

In the third phase of heavy weapons collection from Panjsheer, a number of strategic weapons were handed over to the nascent Afghan National Army, in what is seen a critical effort to improve security in the country.

“One Scud rocket, one Luna rocket, eight Organ rocket launchers and four tanks are being taken to Kabul to be handed over to the national army,” Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said from Jabal Siraj at the entrance to the valley.

Azimi told reporters that tens of tanks, armored vehicles and rockets had been taken out of the valley in earlier phases which began in December.

The disarmament of some 100,000 to 200,000 militiamen scattered around the country, as well as the removal of heavy weapons belonging to warlords, is seen as critical to the establishment of the rule of law in the country. However, Panjsheer villagers were unhappy that the arms were being removed from their valley, saying that they had inherited the weapons from their late leader the revered Tajik military strategist Ahmad Shah Masood.