Gunmen kill 10 mine-clearing workers in Afghanistan

KUNDUZ: Masked gunmen killed 10 people working for the HALO Trust mine-clearing organisation in northern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said Wednesday, blaming the Taliban for the latest attack to rock the violence-wracked country.

The raid happened on Tuesday evening as dozens of deminers were relaxing at a HALO compound in Baghlan province, around 260 kilometres (160 miles) north of the capital, after a day spent looking for ordnance in the area.

Baghlan has seen fierce fighting in recent months, with near-daily battles between the Taliban and government forces in several districts.

A survivor of Tuesday's attack told AFP that five or six armed men scaled the compound walls and gathered everyone together before asking if there were any Hazara present.

Afghanistan's Shiite Hazara community is often targeted by jihadists from the Islamic State, who consider them heretics.

"Nobody responded," said the survivor, who was wounded in the attack and asked not to be identified.

He told AFP the gunmen then asked the compound leader to identify himself, before shooting him.

"Then one of them said 'kill them all'," he said.

"As they opened fire, we all tried to escape. Some were killed and some, like me, were wounded."