KABUL, Afghanistan — The first sign of danger was the crackle of gunfire over their heads. Ten gunmen, their faces covered, rushed toward terrified humanitarian workers and began shouting “Satellite! Satellite!” — a demand to surrender their phones.
Moments later, 10 of them lay dead, including two women hiding in the back seat of a car the attackers hit with a grenade, according to an Afghan official.
It is the first detailed narrative of the slaying of six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton on Aug. 5 in remote northern Afghanistan. They were ambushed and shot Aug. 5 after journeying about 100 miles — much of it on foot and horseback — through the Hindu Kush mountains, giving eye and other medical care to impoverished villagers.
Afghan and U.S. investigators spent at least four hours this week questioning the survivor, a 24-year-old father of three named Safiullah. He was employed as a driver for International Assistance Mission, a nonprofit Christian organization that has worked in Afghanistan since 1966.
Safiullah said the killings occurred around 7:30 a.m. or 8:30 a.m.
At the end of the trip, the team spent their final night in a village. The next morning, riding in four-wheeled drive vehicles, they encountered a river swollen by heavy rains.
An Afghan man in the area offered to help the team as it was trying to cross the river. After successfully crossing, the team stopped to take a break in a forested area at the side of the road.
The Afghan man who had helped the group left. Then came the attack.
The gunmen rushed in, firing bullets over the medical team members’ heads.
“What’s happening?” leader Tom Little shouted.
A gunman struck Little in the head with the back of an AK-47 rifle. Little fell bleeding to the ground. When he tried to get up, the attackers fatally shot him in the torso.
Two of three female members of the team had jumped inside an SUV to hide. The attackers tossed a grenade at the vehicle, killing them both. Then, one by one, they killed the rest of the group — except the driver.
Safiullah said he believes the lead gunman was Pakistani because he yelled “Jadee! Jadee!” — a word used in regional languages that means “hurry up.” It is more commonly used in Pakistan and India than Afghanistan. He said all the attackers understood Dari and Pashto, the two main languages spoken in Afghanistan, but talked in Pashaye, a dialect used only in parts of the northeast corner of Afghanistan.
After the killings, the gunmen took Safiullah with them on a multi-hour hike. During the journey, one of the gunmen spoke on a radio with a high antenna, saying, in Pashto, “Everything’s finished. We killed them,” Safiullah told investigators.
The gunmen told Safiullah that he could leave, but he said he feared he would be shot in the back. He said he dropped to his knees and began hugging the legs of one of the men. Eventually convinced that they had no plans to kill him, Safiullah started running.
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