American aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan, governor says

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Gunmen kidnapped a burqa-clad American aid worker and her driver in southern Afghanistan's largest city, snatching the woman from a residential neighborhood as she was on her way to work. Cyd Mizell worked in Kandahar for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation. Jeff Palmer, the aid group's international director, said the group had not been contacted by the kidnappers and that he did not know their identity or demands. Asadullah Khalid, the provincial governor, blamed the kidnappings early Saturday on the "enemy of Islam and the enemy of Afghanistan." Khalid said the 49-year-old American was wearing a burqa when she was seized. Several foreigners - including 23 South Koreans, two German construction workers and two Italian journalists - have been kidnapped in Afghanistan in the last year, but kidnappings of Americans are rare. An American civilian was briefly abducted in Kabul in April 2005 but escaped by throwing himself from a moving car.