Eleven Chinese workers shot dead in Afghanistan

Eleven Chinese construction workers on a World Bank project were shot dead in Afghanistan yesterday – the largest number of foreigners to be killed since the end of the war with the Taliban in 2001. The killings raised fresh concerns about security for the national elections, scheduled for late September. A group of about eight armed men entered a compound 20 miles from the city of Kunduz where the workers were sleeping in tents and opened fire. After 10 minutes, 11 men were dead and five wounded. The men, who worked for the China Railway Shisju group, were helping to build the Kunduz-Baghlan road, a $22m (£12m) project sponsored by the World Bank. The attack caused widespread shock as the area had previously been regarded as one of the safest in the country, and is not normally associated with the Taliban. Jean Arnault, the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan, condemned the “cold-blooded attack”. China’s president, Hu Jintao, described it as “inhumane and brutal”. Most of the men had arrived at the site the previous day. Full Story