Sudden Jihad Syndrome

 

Briton and South African shot dead in Kabul by their Afghan security guard

* Update: “Militants” Gouge Out Afghan Man’s Eyes in Front of Family

“Officials said that they remained unsure of the motive for the killing and were investigating the guard’s background,” although infiltration is being acknowledged as a possibility. The grave difficulty that Westerners have in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere is that there is no reliable way to determine who is really on their side and who is on the side of the jihadists, no matter how many bridges have been built and how many hearts and minds won.

“Briton and his colleague killed by their Afghan security guard,” by Tom Coghlan for The Times, October 27 (thanks to JW):

A British man and his South African colleague became the latest victims of deteriorating security in Kabul when they were shot dead outside their office by a security guard who then killed himself.

The shootings occurred on the eve of the funeral of Gayle Williams, the British charity worker killed last week, who was buried yesterday in the Afghan capital’s British cemetery.

The British Embassy named the dead Briton as David Giles, 42, the country director of the international courier DHL in Afghanistan. He died with Jason Bresler, the freight company’s South African deputy director, when an Afghan security guard at the DHL offices sprayed their car with automatic fire as they arrived for work on Saturday. The guard placed the gun under his chin and shot himself.

Officials said that they remained unsure of the motive for the killing and were investigating the guard’s background. Some reports suggested the man joined the British-run security company that protected DHL only a month ago. “No one knows if this person was recruited [to carry out the killing] or there was infiltration of the enemy,” said Zmarai Bashery, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

A spokesman for the Taleban denied involvement in the killings. Privately, Western officials said that Taleban involvement in the latest attack was not thought likely….