UK aid worker may have been killed by rescuers' grenade

David Cameron: "Linda may not have died at the hands of her captors, as originally believed"
British aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been accidentally killed by US forces during a rescue mission in Afghanistan, David Cameron has said.

International forces there originally said the 36-year-old died on Friday when one of her captors detonated a suicide vest.

But the prime minister said new details had come to light suggesting her death may have resulted from a US grenade.

He said he had spoken to her family about the "deeply distressing" news.

Mr Cameron said he was told of the new developments in a phone call from Gen David Petraeus, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, on Monday morning.

He said the general had told him US forces were deeply dismayed at the outcome and said it was "deeply regrettable" that information published on Saturday about Ms Norgrove was highly likely to have been incorrect.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Nicholas Witchell in Kabul said British officials there were "dumbfounded" and he expected them to be "angry at this turn of events".


He added: "It raises questions about the manner of the assault; it raises questions about the way in which the American media operation has disseminated this suggestion that she died at the hands of her captors quite unequivocally for 48 hours."

"It appears there has been a review of the surveillance footage that the Americans have, together with discussions with members of the rescue team, that they cannot 'conclusively determine' - that's their phrase - how Linda Norgrove did in fact meet her death."

He said there had been no suggestion during the past 48 hours the US forces had used grenades - and in this case potential shrapnel grenades - until now.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall added the latest developments would raise questions over UK and US relations and the possibility there was an attempt to cover up the circumstances of Ms Norgrove's death.

'Chaotic circumstances'
But Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne said there had been no attempt to cover up the truth about the rescue operation.

He said: "That was us acting at all stages on the best information that we had supplied to us. But we will have an investigation and we will try and establish as far as is possible, in what sound like completely chaotic circumstances, precisely what happened."

At the Downing Street press conference, Mr Cameron defended the rescue mission, saying it had his full support as Ms Norgrove had been in "grave danger".

He said: "The decision to launch this rescue operation was not an easy one. But I am clear that Linda's life was in grave danger from the moment she was taken.

"Those on the ground and in London feared that she was going to be passed up the terrorist chain which would increase further the already high risk that she would be killed."

Mr Cameron said 12 meetings of the government emergencies committee, Cobra, had taken place before Foreign Secretary William Hague and the US agreed the rescue attempt should go ahead. His decision was then approved by the prime minister.

It had been thought that Ms Norgrove had been killed by her abductors just as US forces reached the compound in which she was being held in Afghanistan.


Linda Norgrove was seized in the province of Kunar on 26 September
But at the start of the press conference, Mr Cameron said it had since emerged that she may have died as a result of a US grenade being detonated during the rescue.

Mr Cameron said it had not yet been confirmed that was the case but a full US/UK investigation - which will last several days - was being launched. The results are expected to be made public.

"We must get to the bottom of what happened, first of all so the family gets this information and knows exactly how their wonderful daughter died," he said.

Mr Cameron told the press conference: "My thoughts and the thoughts of the whole country are with them, as they come to terms with the death of their daughter and this deeply distressing development.

"Linda's death is a tragedy for her family and those who worked alongside her in Afghanistan. She was a dedicated professional doing a job she loved in a country she loved."

'More time'
Speaking from the Isle of Lewis, Mr Norgrove said: "We are not saying anything to the press at the moment. We might issue a statement in another day or two, we're not certain, but now we are not saying anything."

Mr Cameron added that Ms Norgrove, who was seized in the province of Kunar on 26 September, was being held in remote and high mountains, making the rescue operation very difficult.

Three local staff were also kidnapped alongside Ms Norgrove when the two cars they were travelling in were ambushed. The staff were released unharmed last week.

The Briton, who was employed by US aid group DAI, is believed to have been taken by her captors from village to village as British, Afghan and other intelligence agencies searched the remote area.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul said tribal elders negotiating her release had asked Nato not to intervene, to insure they had more time to secure a release.

And an Afghan intelligence official told the BBC the US had ignored local police and intelligence recommendations supporting this course of action.

Let them eat cake ...

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- North Korea's increasingly reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, made a rare public appearance with his youngest son Sunday at a massive military parade billed as one of the largest in the nation.
Dignitaries from around the world, including China, Russia, Nepal, Poland, Austria and Mongolia, attended the event.

Officials said 20,000 military personnel took part. They marched in lockstep as huge pieces of military hardware -- including tanks and missiles -- rolled along the parade route as part of celebration marking the 65th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Thousands of military personnel erupt into applause and chants as the Kims appeared in the capital to start the parade.

"It's an annual holiday, but in effect this is an elaborate coming out party for the man who will be the next leader," said CNN's Alina Cho, referring to Kim's youngest son.
The parade began in the Kim Il Sung Square, named for Kim Jong Il's father and North Korea's founder.
Gallery: Life inside North Korea
Video: Kim Jong Un demystified Video: 'A freaky, freaky trip' Video: North Korea's next leader? Video:

The United States believes Kim Jong Un has been tapped to replace his ailing father as North Korea's leader.

Little is known about Kim Jong Un. He is thought to be 27 or 28, is believed to have been schooled abroad and is thought to be capable of speaking some English and German, and possibly some French. He is said to have a fondness for Michael Jordan and James Bond.
In a move that surprised North Korea observers, Kim Jong Un appeared to be wearing civilian clothes instead of his military uniform and medals, even though he had been named a four-star general last month.

"This is ... Kim Jong Il trying to make sure that senior military officers are not offended by someone who just got his start," said Gordon Chang, a North Korea expert and columnist for Forbes.com. "It shows he needs to massage this process."
In a rare embrace of the media, Pyongyang invited about 60 journalists from around the world to cover the weekend's festivities, Cho said.

"We were quite hastily invited at the middle of last week," she said. "We knew something big was happening but we weren't entirely sure what."

Cho said that security is tight and that even the news media's government minders are being checked by security personnel -- along with Cho's notebook and pen.
Sunday's parade encompassed units of the three services of the Korean People's Army -- the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards -- according to North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency.

On Saturday, Kim and his heir apparent appeared at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium as part of the Arirang celebration. The event featured hundreds of gymnastics and dance performances. Participants spent up to eight hours a day training and preparing for the occasion.
Performers danced enthusiastically for the crowd in the packed stadium. Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un could be seen sitting in a private box removed from the masses, flanked by military officials.

Electricity was on throughout Pyongyang on Saturday, Cho said, an unusual occurrence in power-starved North Korea.
The spare-no-expense celebration will likely be frowned upon by many ordinary North Koreans, Chang said.

"With the North Korean economy trending downwards, with poverty and destitution, there's got be the question of the nature of the regime," he said. "They're going to look at this and say, 'Why don't I have clean water? Why don't I have food? How can they afford all of this?'"

Chinese President Hu Jintao sent Kim Jong Il a congratulatory message Saturday, commending the party for "overcoming difficulties and risks and arduously struggling to continuously make eye-catching achievements in its socialist revolution and construction cause," China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying.

Hu also praised the relationship between North Korea and China, and pledged to make "it an unswerving policy to continuously strengthen and develop bilateral friendly and cooperative ties."

Cowards kill woman aid worker during rescue attempt

A UK aid worker held hostage after being kidnapped in Afghanistan has been killed during a rescue attempt, the Foreign Office has said.

Linda Norgrove, 36, from Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland, was employed by US aid group DAI. She was seized with three local staff on 26 September.

Their two-car convoy was ambushed in the eastern province of Kunar.

Ms Norgrove was killed by her captors on Friday during a rescue mission by US forces.

The Briton is believed to have been taken by her captors from village to village as British, Afghan and other intelligence agencies worked in the remote and mountainous area of Kunar province to locate her.

Both the prime minister and Foreign Secretary William Hague were kept fully informed and British approval was given for a rescue mission to be mounted on Friday night, involving US forces with British officials offering advice.

In a statement, Mr Hague said the aid worker was "killed at the hands of her captors in the course of a rescue attempt".

He said: "Working with our allies we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said everything was done to rescue Ms Norgrove
"Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers.

"From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat. Given who held her, and the danger she was in, we judged that Linda's best chance lay in attempting to rescue her."

International Security Assistance Force Commander General David Petraeus said Afghan and coalition security forces did everything in their power to rescue Ms Norgrove.

He said: "Linda was a courageous person with a passion to improve the lives of Afghan people, and sadly she lost her life in their service. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this difficult time."

And Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, expressed his "deepest condolences" following her "extremely sad and upsetting" death.

"Ms Norgrove was a dedicated aid worker who was doing everything she could to help people in Afghanistan - hopefully that legacy of service in a humanitarian cause can be of some comfort to her loved ones in their time of grief," he said.

Ms Norgrove had been based in Jalalabad where she supervised US-funded reconstruction programmes in the eastern region of Afghanistan.

'Wonderful woman'

DAI president James Boomgard said the loss of a "beloved friend and respected colleague" was "devastating news" and sent his condolences to her family.

In a statement, he said: "We are saddened beyond words by the death of a wonderful woman whose sole purpose in Afghanistan was to do good, to help the Afghan people achieve a measure of prosperity and stability in their everyday lives as they set about rebuilding their country.

"Linda loved Afghanistan and cared deeply for its people, and she was deeply committed to her development mission. She was an inspiration to many of us here at DAI and she will be deeply missed."


The area where Ms Norgrove was killed was extremely remote
One her colleagues in Kabul told the BBC the Briton had "sacrificed her life for Afghans".

Ms Norgrove, who had travelled extensively, was an experienced aid worker who had been based in a number of countries.

She worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan and Laos and, prior to that, led a conservation and poverty reduction project in Peru.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul said Dewagal valley, in eastern Kunar province, where she was held, is known for its difficult terrain. It is mountainous and densely forested. The valley is extremely remote.

There has never been any government control; it is virtually ruled by militants, tribal elders and powerful clans.

Various armed groups operate in the area, Afghans and foreigners can be targeted by gangs seeking ransom money, but they are sometimes sold on to militant groups.

DAI carries out aid work, often subcontracted by the United States Agency for International Development.

In July, a British private security guard was among four people killed in an attack on DAI offices in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. Shaun Sexton, 29, from Northumberland, a former member of the Parachute Regiment, was working for the firm's security sub-contractor, Edinburgh International.

A month later, British doctor Karen Woo and nine other aid workers and translators were killed by gunmen, in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan, in what police said was a robbery.

Dr Woo worked for Christian charity the International Assistance Mission, providing eye care in remote villages.

Half dozen more scumbags killed by drone

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Six militants died in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region Friday, intelligence officials said.

The intelligence officials, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said a militant hideout was targeted.

The attack occurred in the Miran Shah area of North Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been critical of drone strikes, many of which have occurred in North Waziristan, with one Foreign Ministry official saying that such attacks have been counterproductive in the effort to win grass-roots support for the fight against militants.

While suspected militants have been killed, the strikes have also caused civilian casualties, angering citizens.

The United States does not officially comment on suspected drone strikes. But it is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely. September has seen more attacks than any other month since strikes from the unmanned aerial vehicles began.

Taliban being hired /U.S. service members at risk

The lives of U.S. service members are being put at risk - and so is the U.S mission in Afghanistan - by lax oversight of private security contractors, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee report based on a year-long investigation of contracting problems.

Two separate issues are in play, according to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., committee chairman: First, some security contractors and subcontractors are using Afghan warlords and strongmen either as employees or recruiters, despite evidence of ties to the Taliban and terrorist organizations. Investigators found examples of security guards using their access to bases to steal weapons and plan attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, and also found that the contracts were funneling U.S. taxpayer money into the hands of people responsible for murder, kidnappings and unrest.

Second, some security guards were simply unqualified, untrained and unreliable. Investigators found guards with no weapons or weapons training who never made patrols, left guard towers unmanned and failed to show up for work.

"You do not need security that produces insecurity," Levin said. "This situation threatens the security of our troops and puts the success of our mission at risk. We need to shut off the spigot of U.S. dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and powerbrokers who act contrary to our interest and contribute to the corruption that weakens the support of the Afghan people for their government."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, responding to the Senate committee report, said the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have been working for three years to tighten contracting rules, placing more emphasis on commanders on the ground weighing in on security contracts.

One month ago, Army Gen. David Petraeus announced new procedures to consider whether giving security contracts to local powerbrokers is a good idea, Gates said. "The memorandum encourages commanders to hire Afghans first and help build Afghan capacity but also emphasizes the need for the command to know those with whom they contract," Gates said in the letter to Levin.

In response to that letter, Levin said he still has some immediate concerns because some current contractors, including some applying for renewals, who are part of the problem uncovered by the committee. "The current situation has huge risks which are unacceptable," he said.

About 26,000 private security contractors are now working in Afghanistan, most of them armed and most of them Afghan nationals. This underscores the importantce of ensuring the security guards are properly vetted, trained and equipped, Levin said.

Many of the problems uncovered in the committee investigation involve problems in 2007 and 2008. But there are recent examples as well, like a Feb. 19 incident in Farah province in northeastern Afghanistan when a Marine patrol came under fire by someone who was later discovered to be a contract security guard. One Marine was killed in the incident, and seven Afghan nationals working as security guards were detained, with their weapons and a cache of opium seized as evidence, according to the report.

Marines interviewed by the committee said this "was not the first time they had taken fire from private security personnel," the report sai