JALALABAD, Afghanistan, May 30 (UPI) -- Armed men attacked an office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, killing a guard and injuring two staff members, police said.
China's official Xinhua News Agency, quoting a police official, said the attackers targeted the ICRC office in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday evening in the first such incident of violence in the country against the humanitarian organization.
Provincial Deputy Police Chief Massom Hashimi told Xinhua that a car bomb was detonated in front of the ICRC office, killing the office's Afghan security guard.
A gun battle between the attackers and police followed, in which two staff members were injured.
"One staff member, an Afghan guard, was killed and two others, an expatriate and an Afghan, were slightly wounded. All other staff are safe and well," the ICRC said in a news release.
"We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms," said Jacques de Maio, the ICRC's head of operations for South Asia.
The Jalalabad ICRC office has a staff of 36, including six expatriates, the news release said. Afghanistan has one of the largest ICRC operations worldwide, with about 1,800 staff working at 17 locations across the country.
