Kidnapped Aid Worker Dies During Rescue Attempt

By Steve Hynd

Linda Norgrove, a Scottish-born aid worker who was kidnapped last month in Afghanistan's Kunar province, has been killed in the course of a rescue attempt by US forces, according to British and NATO officials. The official line, repeated by most of the mainstream media, is that her captors killed her and were in turn all killed by her would-be rescuers.

In a statement, Hague said: "It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker who had been held hostage in eastern Afghanistan since 26 September, was killed at the hands of her captors  in the course of a rescue attempt last night.

"Working with our allies, we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information.

"Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage-takers.

"From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat. Given who held her, and the danger she was in, we judged that Linda's best chance lay in attempting to rescue her."

General David Petraeus, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, said every effort had been made to safely rescue Norgrove.

He said: "Afghan and coalition security forces did everything in their power to rescue Linda.

"Linda was a courageous person with a passion to improve the lives of Afghan people, and sadly she lost her life in their service. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this difficult time."

However, Afghan officials so far have two very different variants on how exactly Norgrove died.

Bloomberg quotes the local police chief:

A British woman kidnapped in Afghanistan by insurgents in Kunar province last month has been killed during an airstrike on the village of Dineshgal, in Kunar�s Norgal district, Maqsood Padshah, the police chief of Sawkai district, said by phone today.

�According to our intelligent report, the British woman was killed� in a U.S airstrike, Padshah said.

While AFP, calling the rescue attempt "botched", quotes an anonymous Afghan intelligence official:

According to an Afghan intelligence official, the rescue team was closing in on the house where Norgrove was being held when her captors threw a grenade into the room where she was kept, killing her.

The troops opened fire and killed all the captors, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Western aid sources said the three Afghan staff had been released unharmed last week.

Either way, it seems there was an explosion in which she died. However, NATO has been very reticent about details so far, not mentioning the units involved - presumably American because Kunar is in their remit and the UK has already admitted no British troops took part in the rescue raid - or giving their own version of how Norgrove died except to say simply that her captors bear full responsibility.

Given the contested versions from Afghan sources and a long previous record of denying culpability in order to blame insurgents for civilian deaths, NATO has to be more forthcoming. If the explosion that killed Linda Norgrave was an airstrike unleashed by her would-be rescuers or if by waiting she might have remained alive then her family has a right to know.

Certainly, one aid worker in Afghanistan has already written this morning that in case of kidnap she doesn't want to be rescued.

Norgrove�s death is a good illustration of one reason why, if I�m ever kidnapped here, I do not want to be rescued.

Afghanistan isn�t Hollywood; hostages are likely to be killed in armed rescue attempts.

The other reason I don�t want to be rescued is that rescue attempts, even when they succeed, can and often do result in collateral damage.

...So, no rescue. And no ransom. If I am unlucky enough to fall into the hands of people who mean to do me harm or use me for political ends as a captive, by all means engage them in dialogue, but pay them no money, and raise no weapons in defense of my life.

Those are my wishes, now in writing.

That's a brave statement, and a sensible one.

Update: We're still awaiting a coherent account of exactly how Linda Norgrove died. The Washington Post quotes an anonymous US official: "Norgrove's captors detonated a bomb that killed her" while Al Jazeera English says "Afghan sources are saying it's not yet clear whether she was killed by the Taliban or killed in the crossfire". And UK journalist David MacDougall tweets "uk tv news says US rescue, sanctioned by UK govt; isaf troops got there, found her wounded by taliban, gave treatment, she died."