quote:
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update
January 26, 2008 at 12:35 PM EST
Kandahar, Afghanistan — Masked gunmen kidnapped a female American aid worker in a brazen daylight attack in the heart of Kandahar city today, security officials say.
The abduction happened at 7:50 a.m. local time in District 6 on the south side of the downtown, as Cyd Mizell was travelling to work by car, Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib said.
Many non-governmental agencies have already removed their Western staff from Kandahar as the insurgency grew stronger in the last two years, and this attack may be viewed as a new low point in the city's deteriorating security situation.
Ms. Mizell, 49, had been living for years in Kandahar city and spoke the local Pashto language, local officials say. They noted that during her morning commute Ms. Mizell was obeying the same security rules followed by many other Western civilians in the war-torn city: She kept a low profile by wearing the traditional Afghan burka and travelling in a Toyota Corolla, the most common vehicle in southern Afghanistan.