Halo Trust, a United Kingdom-based international humanitarian landmine-clearing charity, announced Wednesday that 10 of its workers were killed and 16 others injured in an attack in Afghanistan's Baghlan province.
The Afghan government blamed the Taliban for the killings, but the group denied responsibility, and Halo Trust's CEO told BBC "the local Taliban group came to our aid and scared the assailants off." He said it's not clear who the attackers were, though BBC reports that even if the perpetrators are unknown, "the aim is clear." A survivor of the attack reportedly said the gunmen asked the workers if any of them were from the Hazara minority, a Shia community, before opening fire, indicating the motive was to further spark ethnic tensions.
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