Taliban kills 10 medical aid workers in northern Afghanistan

Among the confusing aspects of the attack was why the Taliban, if indeed responsible, chose to summarily execute the team, rather than hold its members hostage, which it has done in many other cases to bargain for money or other concessions. In July 2007, the Taliban seized 23 South Korean missionaries driving in a bus from Kandahar to Kabul. Two of the hostages were killed before the South Korean government negotiated the release of the others.

The medical team was returning from several days of treating eye problems and administering dental care in the Parun Valley of Nurestan. Unable to reach the isolated valley by road, they abandoned their three Land Rovers and hiked with pack mules for miles through a pass in the 16,000-foot mountains.

The exact timing of the attack remained unclear Saturday. The deputy police chief in Badakhshan, Gen. Sayid Hussain Safari, said insurgents might have followed them on their return hike and attacked as they reached their vehicles.

When Frans last heard from the group members, on Wednesday, they had already crossed into Badakhshan, he said. They had driven that way to avoid a southern route they considered too dangerous, he said. One of the Afghans, who lived in Jalalabad, left the group to make his own way home and was unharmed.

Safari said 10 gunmen surrounded the medical team, shot the victims with AK-47s, and ransacked their belongings from the vehicles. Of the 11 people at the scene of the shooting, only one survived, an Afghan driver named Saifullah. He told police that the gunmen led him on a long march uphill as he recited the Koran and prayed to be spared.

"He swore to God and said that I'm a true Muslim. That's why they trusted him and released him," Safari said.

But his escape has raised suspicion among some close to the medical team that he might have been involved in orchestrating the attack. Saifullah, who remains in the custody of district police, has not yet been interrogated by the provincial authorities and could not be reached for comment.

Other accounts of the killing conflicted slightly with Safari's version. Frans said police in Badakhshan told him that the group was shot at while driving. "We've only heard what we've heard from the police in Badakhshan," he said. "The cars were sprayed with bullets, the people were pulled out and robbed of everything they had."

The team members were apparently aware that they were going into difficult territory. Woo, the British surgeon, who had been working on a documentary about her time in Afghanistan, had written on a Web site that "the trek will not be easy."

"The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental resolve and will not be without risk but ultimately, I believe that the provision of medical treatment is of fundamental importance and that the effort is worth it in order to assist those who need it most," said Woo, who was engaged to be married.

Badakhshan is a scenic province far from the insurgent hot spots in southern and eastern Afghanistan. But insurgents have become more prevalent there and in other northern provinces over the past year as they have shifted to areas with fewer NATO troops. Military officials have said the area is also an important point for manufacturing heroin and transporting it out of Afghanistan.

Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.