British aid worker shot in Kabul

A British aid worker has been murdered in Afghanistan by the Taliban, who claimed she had been spreading Christianity. Gayle Williams, 34, who worked for the Christian charity Serve, was shot dead by two men on motorcycle as she worked to her office in Kabul. She was found lying dead on the footpath by one of her colleagues.

"This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan," a Taliban spokesman said. "Our [leaders] issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul."

Mike Lyth, Serve's chair, denied that Williams was killed because she was spreading Christianity.

"Purely from my point of view, this is a case of the Taliban picking up on something," he said. "They know we are a Christian agency. We definitely have a policy of no proselytisation... She was only doing missionary work if that means living a Christian life and helping disabled people. She spoke only a little Pashtun and Farsi."

Williams, who lived in London, had recently moved from Kandahar because of security fears there. She is the first Western aid worker to be killed by the Taliban in Kabul.