Afghanistan: Three People Shot Dead Outside Dhl's Offices in Kabul

Two foreigners and an Afghan have been killed in a shooting in front of the offices of an international courier company in Kabul, Afghan officials said today.

The shooting took place in front of the DHL office in the upmarket Sher Pur area of Kabul, where many foreigners live."Two foreigners and one local have been killed and another two locals wounded," a senior police officer at the scene said. Another police official said the victims worked for DHL.

The nationality of the foreigners killed was unclear. Kabul's deputy police chief said the two foreigners were German, but another police official, Abdul Raouf, identified them as a Briton and a South African.

The two were shot in their car as they were apparently pulling into the DHL office. Police at the scene covered the silver sports utility vehicle with plastic sheeting. There was blood on the ground and two bullet holes in the window of the DHL office. The Iranian embassy lies opposite the site of the attack.

The latest attack, the killing of the British aid worker and a number of high profile kidnappings in the Afghan capital in the last week come after the country's president, Hamid Karzai, appointed a new interior minister responsible for policing.

The latest shooting underlines the deteriorating security situation in Kabul in recent months as the Taliban has grown in strength in the surrounding provinces.

In related developments, Pakistan said it had captured a militant stronghold near the Afghan border, a breakthrough in an offensive against the Taliban and al-Qaida that has sent nearly 200,000 civilians fleeing for safety.

Major General Tariq Khan said government forces captured Loi Sam, a strategic town in the Bajur tribal region, earlier this week "and killed the militants who were hiding there".

Bajur is part of Pakistan's tribal belt, which has become a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters on both sides of the frontier.

Pakistan's army launched an offensive in Bajur in early August, saying the region had become a "mega-sanctuary" for militants who had set up a virtual mini-state.

Commanders had reported stiff resistance near Loi Sam, which sits on a strategic road, from local Taliban militants reinforced by foreign fighters including some from Afghanistan.

Khan said a total of 1,500 suspected militants and 73 troops have died in the operation so far. The army has acknowledged that residential areas have been badly damaged from fighting and its use of artillery and air strikes, but it has provided no figure for civilian casualties.