Topic: U.S. Aid Worker, Driver Feared Dead

Washington Times
February 28, 2008
Pg. 12
Afghan rumors unconfirmed

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) — A female American aid worker and her local driver who were abducted in Afghanistan may have been killed, foreign groups said.
Cyd Mizell, 49, an employee of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF), and her driver were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen last month while heading for work in a car in the southern city of Kandahar.
“Although we have no confirmation of their deaths, we have received information over the past few days indicating that our two aid workers have been killed,” ARLDF said on its Web site.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions, and the Taliban insurgents behind many of the recent year’s kidnappings have denied involvement.
“Yes, we have this fear that they may have been killed,” an official working for a Western security group said on the condition of anonymity yesterday.
He said there were no more details available such as who may have killed them and why. The Afghan government has yet to confirm the pair’s deaths.
Miss Mizell had been living for years in Kandahar, where only a handful of Western aid workers operate and live, owing to security problems.
She spoke the local language, Pashto, and wore the all-enveloping burqa, like most women in the former heartland of the Taliban.
Apart from the Taliban, criminal gangs, drug traffickers and armed groups also are involved in abductions of foreigners and Afghans.
The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans in July last year. The group killed two of its hostages before releasing the rest after a deal with the South Korean government.