British doctor killed by the Taleban

Published on Saturday 7 August 2010 16:18

A BRITISH doctor who has been murdered by the Taleban was just days away from marrying her fiancé.

• Dr Karen Woo, murdered by the Taleban, holds a child at the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul

Dr Karen Woo was among ten members of a foreign medical team killed in northern Afghanistan as they returned from an expedition to provide health care in a remote part of the country.

The 36-year-old doctor died along with team leader Tom Little, an optometrist from New York.

Five other Americans, a German and two Afghan interpreters, were also shot and killed after travelling in the Nuristan region of the country. The team had been providing free eyecare and medical treatment with International Assistance Mission, a non-profit Christian organisation which has been operating in Afghanistan since 1966.

It is understood that the team was lined up, robbed, and shot dead with AK-47 rifles. Their bodies were discovered next to three bullet-riddled, four-wheel drive vehicles on Friday in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan province. One member of the team, an Afghan interpreter, survived the attack.

The group had decided to travel through Badakhshan province to return to the capital, Kabul, as they thought it the safest route.

The Taleban yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity".

Woo, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was set to return to the UK to marry her fianc Mark "Paddy" Smith, who she met in November last year.

Woo's brother David said the couple planned to live in the UK and start a family together.

He said: "She was a lovely, vibrant and energetic woman, determined to get the most out of life.

"She and Mark just clicked. She said he was the one.

"Their long-term plan was to come back to the UK and start a family together."

Last night, Smith said their relationship "just made sense".

Speaking from Afghanistan, he said: "It was one of those crazy relationships. Nothing is normal in Afghanistan, but when we met it just made sense. You know when something is right and this was just right."

One of Woo's friends, Liz Chandler, added: "She thinks about everybody else's needs, she is very much into helping people. She is a surgeon and is always helping people, that is her main priority. For this to happen, it is just shocking."

A spokesperson for Bridge Afghanistan, a London-based organisation that worked in the country and that Woo was a member of, said it was "distressed and deeply disturbed by the sad news. We thank everyone for thinking of Karen at this time."

Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, which organised the trip, said that some of the aid workers in the team had been working with Afghans for decades.

"This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," he said. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits more than a quarter of a million Afghans each year."

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Woo was a former BUPA doctor who had given up her job and moved to Afghanistan to provide healthcare to Afghan civilians.

Little, the team leader, had been operating in Afghanistan for over 30 years. He oversaw eye hospitals in Kabul and two other major cities as well as small clinics in three smaller towns. Little was expelled from Afghanistan by the Taleban government in August 2001 after the arrest of eight Christian aid workers – two Americans and six Germans – for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. He returned to live in Afghanistan after the Taleban government was toppled in November 2001.

Frans said he had lost contact with Little on Wednesday. On Friday, a third Afghan member of the team, who survived the attack, called to report the killings. A fourth Afghan member of the team was not killed because he took a different route home.

Villagers had apparently warned the team that the area they were travelling in was dangerous, but the foreigners are understood to have told them they were doctors and weren't afraid.

Local police reported that around ten gunmen had attacked the party, robbing them and then killing them one by one. The 11th member of the team, an Afghan interpreter, apparently survived by shouting and reciting the holy Koran and saying "I am Muslim. Don't kill me."

Frans said he was sceptical about the Taleban being responsible and that the team had studied security conditions carefully before proceeding with the mission. The team trekked from village to village during the two weeks, treating about 400 people for eye disorders and other illnesses.

Woo is the third British woman aid worker to die in Afghanistan in the past two years.