U.N. Relocates Foreign Staff in Afghanistan

U.N. Relocates Foreign Staff in Afghanistan
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations mission in Afghanistan announced plans on Thursday to relocate hundreds of foreign staff members, sending some out of the country, in the wake of a lethal attack on its workers at a guesthouse last week.

The relocation of its workers here, while temporary, was one more signal of mounting pressure on United Nations operations as security deteriorates around the region. The move comes just four days after the United Nations announced it was withdrawing its international workers from northwestern Pakistan, where insurgents are fighting Pakistani troops and have carried out a string of terrorist attacks.

In recent weeks, United Nations workers on both sides of the border have been singled out in deadly attacks, in what appears to be a deliberate campaign by insurgents to undercut international support for the embattled Afghan and Pakistani governments.

Five United Nations workers for the World Food Program were killed in a suicide attack at the program’s offices in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in early October. Last week in Kabul three insurgents dressed in police uniforms scaled the front gate of a guesthouse housing United Nations personnel to mount a terrifying two-hour siege.

Five of the United Nations’ international staff members were killed, along with two Afghan security officials and the brother-in-law of a prominent Afghan politician, before the attackers were shot and killed. The strike was the biggest on the United Nations in Afghanistan in its half-century of work here and forced the organization to lock down its operations as it reviewed security across the country.

A United Nations spokesman, Adrian Edwards, said Thursday that about 600 international staff members would be temporarily relocated either to other places in Afghanistan or outside the country, primarily Dubai and Central Asian countries.
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