KABUL, Afghanistan — The bullet-riddled body of an abducted Japanese aid worker was recovered Wednesday, the latest grim symbol of insurgents’ apparent determination to drive outside humanitarian groups from Afghanistan.
Afghan and Japanese authorities identified the slain man as Kazuya Ito, an engineer who was kidnapped by gunmen a day earlier in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul. He was the fourth foreign-aid worker killed in the country in two weeks.
A Western soldier was killed Wednesday as well, the NATO-led coalition announced. The soldier, a German, was killed by a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan, the coalition said. Over the past few months, Western troop fatalities in Afghanistan have outpaced those in Iraq, though the U.S. military presence in the latter is far larger.
Ito was 31 and was working on agricultural development projects in a remote eastern area of Afghanistan, Japanese diplomats said.
According to authorities, gunmen stopped his car Tuesday near Jalalabad. Ito’s Afghan driver was released unharmed.
Eastern Afghanistan has become increasingly dangerous in recent months. NATO says that is due in part to the regrouping of insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Fighting in Pakistan’s tribal areas has paralleled the increased violence in Afghanistan. New confrontations between Pakistani forces and insurgents left nearly 50 militants dead, Pakistani authorities reported Wednesday.
On the Afghan side of the border, the governor of Nangarhar province, Gul Agha Sherzai, said an attempt had been made to rescue Ito, but he provided no details. The Reuters news agency quoted Sherzai as saying the aid worker was “killed brutally,” and Japanese news reports said he suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Taliban insurgents, who readily claimed responsibility for an ambush Aug. 13 that killed three female Western aid workers and their Afghan driver, did not directly acknowledge seizing Ito. But a purported Taliban spokesman said the aid worker was killed in a clash between Afghan troops and insurgents.
