Aid Group Suspends Work in Afghanistan

Five members were killed by suspected Taliban militants

A U.S.-based aid organization says it is temporarily suspending operations in Afghanistan after five of its employees were massacred by suspected Taliban militants.

The International Rescue Committee on August 27 confirmed five Afghan staff members—as well as a local Afghan official accompanying them—had been taken hostage on August 25 and killed by their captors a day later in the Gulran district of western Herat Province.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings, as did the United Nations office in Afghanistan, which said they could be classified as a war crime.