3 foreigners abducted and killed in Kabul

Afghan police in Kabul yesterday recovered the bodies of three foreign nationals who they said had been abducted and killed, in the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital.

The killings come as the capital has been rocked by an increasing number of attacks in recent months as Islamic State and Taliban insurgents target security forces and government installations.

The victims, all working for a logistics company in Kabul, were from India, Macedonia and Malaysia, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.

"At this stage we think it is a terrorist incident," police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told AFP.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.

The incident happened after the group left their office with a car and driver yesterday.

Just over an hour later their bodies were found in what appeared to be a different car by authorities in the rural outskirts of Kabul.

"They had been shot inside the car," said Bahar Mehr with the interior ministry.

Another spokesman with the ministry said the car's driver was being questioned by police and treated as a possible suspect.

He added that all three had been handcuffed and shot, with two of the bodies later placed in the trunk of the car.

Kabul is plagued by criminal gangs who stage abductions for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy locals, and sometimes hand them over to insurgent groups.

Kidnapping of Afghans and foreigners is also common across Afghanistan where swathes of the country are infested with militant groups or criminal gangs.

Earlier this year six Indian engineers working in northern Afghanistan were abducted along with their driver.

In August 2016, gunmen wearing military uniforms kidnapped two professors of the American University of Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul.