SAR-E PUL, Afghanistan, March 9 (UPI) -- Afghan police have arrested six people in connection with what could to be a terrorist killing of a German aid worker in the northern province of Sar-e Pul.
Sar-e Pul's Governor Sayed Eqbal Munib Friday told Radio Free Afghanistan the attack appeared to be a "terrorist act" rather than a robbery. He said authorities were investigating possible links between the killers and the Taliban.
Sixty-five-year-old Dieter Ruebling, who worked as an engineer for the German Agro Action relief group, was traveling with three Afghans to inspect construction sites when his convoy was ambushed.
"Our local staffers were abused as nonbelievers and threatened with weapons to leave the crime scene," the Bonn-based group said Friday in a statement on its web site. "On their way to the next village, where they contacted police, they heard the deadly shots ringing out. When they returned, Ruebling was dead."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killing, saying Afghans appreciated all foreigners who help with the country's reconstruction.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday in Brussels his thoughts were with Ruebling's family, and that Berlin, in cooperation with Afghan authorities, would do everything to shed light onto the case.
Since the fall of the Taliban at the end of 2001, German Agro Action claims it has spent more than $50 million on water projects, infrastructure and rural development in Afghanistan. It has rebuilt bridges, schools and hospitals. The group is also involved in a program aimed at reintegrating former combatants and the generation of alternative sources of income for opium farmers.
