Italian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan

KABUL - Gunmen have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, security officials said.

A senior official at the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome identified the woman as Clementina Cantoni from Lombardy. She works for the CARE International aid agency, a UN official in Kabul said.

Cantoni was seized near a park at about 8.30pm local time after the vehicle she was travelling in was intercepted and blocked by another car, an Afghan security official said.

"We don't know who kidnapped her or why," said the official, who declined to be identified.

She was bundled into a white Toyota car and driven away, a Western security official said. There was no word on any demands.

Three UN workers were kidnapped in Kabul in October and held for 27 days before being released unharmed.

The abductions shocked the 2000-strong foreign community in Kabul and raised fears of a wave of Iraq-style kidnappings.

Cantoni was travelling with two other people when their vehicle was intercepted and stopped but the others managed to escape, Italy's ANSA news agency said.

An Italian embassy official said the mission was in contact with the relevant authorities. He declined to give details.

The district in Kabul where Cantoni was kidnapped has several guest houses and restaurants that are popular with foreigners.

A bomb attack in an internet cafe in the area on May 8 killed three people, including a UN worker from Myanmar.

Cantoni's family wished for a speedy and happy ending, ANSA said. "The only thing we want to say is that we hope this finishes quickly and happily," ANSA quoted a family friend as saying in a statement.

WARNINGS

While Kabul is much safer than Baghdad, aid agencies have issued warnings to staff to keep a low profile in recent weeks following two unsuccessful attempts to kidnap foreigners.

Embassies also urge vigilance.

In April, an American man was bundled into the boot of a car but managed to jump out. In another incident, a car carrying foreigners was intercepted by gunmen but the driver reversed away and escaped.

A British adviser to the government was shot dead near a UN guest house in March.

The Afghan government said the kidnapping of the three UN election workers in October was by a gang of criminals who could have been hired by a Taleban splinter faction that threatened to kill them unless Taleban prisoners were freed.

Taleban guerrillas have attacked and killed dozens of aid and election workers since launching an insurgency after they were forced from power by US-led forces in 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.

But most of their attacks have been in the countryside, particularly in the south and east.

- REUTERS