3 election workers abducted in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan — Armed men kidnapped three foreign election workers as they drove in a white sport utility vehicle in the Afghan capital yesterday, U.N. and Afghan officials said.

They said two of the victims are women — one with dual British-Irish nationality, the other from Kosovo — and the third is a male diplomat from the Philippines. The driver was beaten and left behind.

A man claiming to speak for Jamiat Jaish-al Muslimeen told the Associated Press in Pakistan that the Taliban splinter group is responsible and that the victims are in a “safe place,” although that could not be verified independently.

The motive for the daylight kidnapping is not clear. Taliban rebels have kidnapped foreigners in the past, although not in the capital.

The abduction occurred less than a week after a suicide attack killed an American translator in a Kabul street and after warnings that Taliban militants might target foreigners in an echo of the brutal insurgency in Iraq.

Abdul Hadi Qasemi, an Afghan working for U.N. security, said the three were stopped and abducted by five gunmen on a road slightly away from Kabul’s teeming streets.

An Afghan government official said the driver told investigators that a black four-wheel-drive vehicle with tinted windows pulled in sharply in front of the U.N. car.

Several uniformed men got out and accused the driver of cutting them off at the previous corner, the official said on the condition of anonymity. They then forced the foreigners into their car, which turned around and drove off.

Yesterday afternoon, U.N. security staff ringed the white vehicle, found on a dusty street near an office of the joint U.N.-Afghan electoral body set up to oversee the presidential vote. The car, clearly marked with the world body’s initials, had its doors locked, and there was no sign of a struggle.

In Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs identified one of the women as Annetta Flanigan. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said she was a “British-Irish dual national.”

“I condemn unreservedly this kidnapping and call for the immediate and unconditional release of those taken,” Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said. “Few details about the kidnapping are available at this stage. We are following the situation closely, including through the U.N. offices on the ground and through our accredited embassy in Tehran.”

In Manila, a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs identified the abducted Filipino as Angelito Nayan, a foreign service officer assigned to the U.N. electoral effort.

“The department strongly condemns such acts as pointless hindrances to the rebuilding of the Afghan nation, which has just successfully completed its first democratic election,” the statement said. “Extremism of this form has no place in civilized society and is a violation of international humanitarian law.”