Pakistani killed in Afghan raid; Turk found dead

KABUL, Sep 22 (Reuters) Gunmen in Afghanistan attacked a convoy of oil tankers importing fuel for foreign forces and a construction company, killing a Pakistani worker, an Afghan government official today said.

Separately, a body found in southern Afghanistan was identified as that of a kidnapped Turkish guard. The Taliban said its militants had killed the guard after a Turkish construction company ignored an ultimatum to leave Afghanistan.

Gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades and rifles attacked the tanker convoy late yesterday on the main road from the Pakistani border to the eastern city of Jalalabad, said district government chief Hazrat Khan Khaksar.

''The tankers were parked at a petrol pump when they were attacked. A driver's helper was on one of the tankers that caught fire and was killed,'' Khaksar said.

Three of the tankers that came from Pakistan were bound for a U.S. military base and two were bringing fuel for a road construction company, he said. All five were destroyed.

There was no claim of responsibility.

Taliban guerrillas, fighting an intensified insurgency against the government and foreign forces across the south and east, have in the past claimed responsibility for similar attacks.

A Turkish embassy official said a body found in the southern province of Helmand and brought to Kabul late yesterday had been identified as the kidnapped Turk.

Mustafa Asimi worked for a Turkish firm providing security for the Ankara-based Kolin Insaat construction company. He was abducted on August 28 in an ambush in Helmand. A Turkish engineer was killed in the ambush.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said on Tuesday the Taliban killed Asimi because the construction company had refused to pull out.

The Taliban regard companies involved in reconstruction as supporting the U.S.-led military mission in the country.

Dozens of road and telecommunications workers as well as aid workers have been kidnapped, killed or wounded in ambushes in recent years. Some of those kidnapped have been freed.

The highest level of violence since Taliban rulers were ousted in 2001 has largely crippled aid and reconstruction in much of the the south and east of the country.

About 40,000 NATO and U.S.-led troops are trying to push back the Taliban and ensure security for development to get going.

Reuters SY DB1147