Three election workers, believed to be two women and a man, were abducted from a United Nations vehicle today in Kabul. The attack has been claimed by a Taliban breakoff group called Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), according to Reuters.
The driver of the car, an Afghan man, was beaten and left behind at the scene, according to Agence France Presse. Witnesses say that at least seven armed men stopped the vehicle in the rush hour traffic at lunch and put the election workers into a truck with tinted windows, Reuters reports. This attack is believed to be the first abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan.
The kidnapping comes on the day that the United Nations-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body finished counting ballots from the October 9 presidential election, in which President Hamid Karzai received at least 55 percent of the vote.
