A South African and a Briton shot dead in Kabul were killed by one of their own guards who then committed suicide, interior ministry officials said on Sunday.
The Westerners — the head and deputy head of the Afghanistan branch of international shipping company DHL — were killed early on Saturday as their vehicle pulled up outside their office in the city centre.
”One of the security guards that was standing in front of the company opened fire on the chief and deputy of DHL,” said Interior Ministry spokesperson Zemarai Bashary.
”After killing those people, he killed himself with one bullet under his chin.”
Bashary said police were looking into the background of the guard, employed by an Afghan branch of a British-based security company, to find out what had led him to kill the two Westerners.
”No one knows if this person was recruited [to carry out the killing] or there was infiltration of the enemy,” Bashary said, referring to Taliban extremists behind a wave of violence in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have rejected involvement in the murder, which came a week after a British-South African aid worker was shot dead — also as she was about to arrive at her office.
The Taliban said its men had killed Gayle Williams, who is to be buried in Kabul on Sunday, because her organisation preached Christianity — a charge rejected by the group, Serve Afghanistan.
Interior Ministry criminal investigation chief Mirza Mohammad Yarmang said a post-mortem would confirm that the guard for DHL had killed the two Westerners and then himself.
He had been working with the same security company for three years, Yarmang said.
Police arrested more than a dozen people for questioning after the killing, including other guards and employees of DHL. Most had been released but two were still being questioned, Yarmang said.
Authorities would also order security companies to verify the backgrounds of their employees, he said.
The Afghan government is trying to regulate security companies operating in the volatile country and has closed down several for not having licences.
However, there are still thousands of private guards in the capital, with most international agencies and businesses contracting extra security. – AFP
