Deadly Attack on Medical Aid Team in Afghanistan

At least six people, including a Japanese physician and aid worker, have been killed after unknown gunmen attacked their vehicle in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, officials said.

Tetsu Nakamura, head of Peace Japan Medical Services, died of his wounds on Wednesday after the armed attack in Nangarhar province that left five Afghan members of his entourage, including the doctor’s bodyguards, the driver and a passenger, dead.

“Sadly, Dr Nakamura has passed away from the wounds he received in the armed attack this morning,” Attaullah Khogyani, according to a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province.

Nangarhar police said they were searching for the attackers, who fled the scene, and that an investigation was under way.

Nakamura was seriously wounded and was reported to be in critical condition immediately after the attack in the provincial capital.

He underwent surgery at a local hospital but died shortly after while being airlifted to the Bagram airfield hospital in the capital, Kabul, for further treatment, Gulzada Sanger, a hospital spokesman, told the Associated Press news agency.

Nakamura had headed the Japanese NGO in Nangarhar since 2008. He came to Afghanistan after a Japanese colleague, Kazuya Ito, was abducted and killed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the second in as many weeks targeting aid workers in Afghanistan.