Gunman attacks aid project in Afghanistan, kills 1

KABUL — A gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation today in eastern Afghanistan, killing one person and injuring several others, officials said.

One of those wounded in the attack in Khost province was a German citizen, said a spokesman for the German Foreign Office, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. The person who was killed was Afghan.

Separately, NATO said a serviceman died today in a bombing in southern Afghanistan. The international force did not disclose the nationality of the soldier who died.

In Khost, the attacker opened fire from a vehicle as he approached the site in Khost City and then fled to a nearby house, where he engaged police in a gunbattle that was ongoing this evening, said acting provincial Gov. Taher Khan Sabari.

A total of three people were wounded in the initial attack, including the German and two Afghans, said the German spokesman and a local police official, Gulam Mohammad.

The Foreign Office did not identify the German aid organization involved in renovating the school.

Several others were wounded in the gunbattle that followed the initial assault.

Local hospital official Amir Pacha said a total of nine people were being treated for injuries, including three police. He could not say which had been wounded in the initial attack versus the subsequent gunbattle.

Khost is located along the volatile border with Pakistan and is a stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network.

A Jordanian suicide bomber attacked a remote CIA base in Khost in December, killing seven of the agency’s employees.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan today, NATO forces treated three injured children who were brought to a base in the central province of Uruzgan just after troops had completed a live firing exercise. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the injuries, the international force said in a statement.