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

Three people, including one Briton, were killed today in a shooting in front of the offices of an international courier company in Kabul.

The killings took place in front of the DHL headquarters in the upmarket Sher Pur area of Kabul, where many foreigners live. The Foreign Office named the British victim as David Giles. The other two killed were a South African and an Afghan.

A spokesman for DHL said: "At this difficult time our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues of those who have lost their lives under such tragic circumstances. DHL is fully co-operating with authorities investigating the incident. In order not to hinder the investigation no further information can be released at this time."

Zemeri Bashary, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman, said the employees were the director and deputy director for DHL in Afghanistan.

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

In the latest kidnapping, two Turkish engineers were seized in south-eastern Afghanistan, Afghan and Turkish officials said.

Today's incidents underline the deteriorating security situation in Kabul and beyond 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.