KABUL, Afghanistan - Three Americans were killed Thursday morning at a private hospital in Kabul when an Afghan police officer turned his gun on them, officials said.
The shooting took place at Cure International Hospital, a 100-bed facility that specializes in the treatment of disabled children and women’s health issues and is run by a U.S.-based Christian charity. One of the physicians who worked there was hosting visitors from the United States, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir, the Kabul police chief.
Among the dead was Dr. Jerry Umanos, 57, a pediatrician from Chicago, said his mother-in-law, Angie Schuitema. The Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago said Umanos worked there for more than 16 years before moving to Afghanistan in 2005.
“We have lost a dear friend,” said James Brooks, the chief ministry officer at the Lawndale Christian Health Center. “Our clinic is grieving right now. Our hearts are broken.”
Health Minister Soraya Dalil said the other two dead Americans were a father and son who were visiting.A U.S. nurse was wounded, Dalil said.
All three of the dead were identified earlier as American doctors by Bektash Torkystani, a Health Ministry spokesman. But the U.S. Embassy confirmed only that three American citizens had been killed.
An Afghan government official said the police officer, Ainuddin, a two-year veteran of the department who like many Afghans goes by one name, had only recently been assigned to the unit guarding the hospital.
Witnesses and officials said he fired on the Americans when they entered a security vestibule at the entrance to the building, killing them and wounding a doctor. Ainuddin then entered the interior courtyard, where he continued to fire, officials said.
Cure staff members performed surgery on the attacker, who had shot himself, before he was handed over to Afghan authorities, the hospital said in a statement. However, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the assailant was shot by other security guards.
“We are trying to determine the cause of this attack,” Zahir said.
The Taliban did not claim responsibility, raising the possibility that the gunman was part of a growing class of Afghans alienated by the presence of Americans in the country. Bitterness against Westerners in Afghanistan has intensified recently as uncertainty has deepened over the future of the foreign military presence there.
Less than three weeks ago, an award-winning German photographer for The Associated Press, Anja Niedringhaus, was killed by a police officer at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan. Her colleague Kathy Gannon, a Canadian reporter who had covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Associated Press for decades, was wounded in the attack.
That attack occurred one month after Swedish journalist Nils Horner was shot and killed in a midday attack in Kabul.
The attacks are reminiscent of shootings by Afghan soldiers against their allies in the foreign military coalition. Two years ago, a sharp increase in the number of those insider attacks threatened to derail the training mission that is central to the U.S. military withdrawal scheduled for this year.
But as international coalition soldiers have increasingly stuck to their bases this year, and as new strategies have been put in place to safeguard against insider attacks, such episodes have all but subsided. Foreign workers in Afghanistan have instead been singled out for attacks, although the number of civilians targeted is still small compared with the number of military deaths.
Violence spiked overall in Afghanistan as insurgents sought to disrupt the April 5 presidential election and sow insecurity ahead of the troop withdrawal. But a concerted effort by the Taliban to target locations that are popular with expatriates was evident before the elections.
In January, a Taliban attack on a popular restaurant using suicide bombers and gunmen killed more than a dozen people. In March, gunmen slipped past security at an upscale hotel and killed several diners in its restaurant.
The unpredictable nature of the violence has prompted some embassies to redouble their security efforts, and has led those living outside secure areas to limit their exposure. And while aid groups have been targeted before, the frequency of such attacks has disturbed a community used to the daily risk of working in conflict zones.
“We’re not seeing aid workers running for the airport, but many organizations are taking a careful look at their security postures,” said Graeme Smith, a senior analyst in Kabul for the International Crisis Group. “The hard reality is that the country is becoming more violent, and Kabul has not escaped this pattern.”
The scene of the attack Thursday presented a case study in the attitudes of Afghans toward the Western presence in the country.
Among the two dozen police officers clustered around the entrance to the hospital, a group of men whose female relatives were patients at the hospital had gathered. Somespoke of the attacks with little sympathy.
“The foreigners have been here too long,” said a man who gave his name as Fawad, whose relative was in the hospital undergoing surgery. “People are tired of them.”
A car pulled up a short while later, and the driver was told by the police to leave the area. When the police explained that an officer had shot and killed three foreigners, the driver replied, “Good for him that he killed the infidels.”
But several Afghans at the hospital responded with expressions of shame and worried about the consequences of the attack.
“This is so bad,” said Ahmad Shekib, a Kabul resident whose aunt had just delivered a baby. “We will lose this source of health services. These were good people who had left their families and had come all the way from U.S. to help Afghans. It is so shameful.”
Others said the attack would harm the very people the foreigners were trying to help.
“We will lose this source of proper health service,” said Mohammed Safar, from Ghazni province, who idled by the entrance. “Who bears the brunt? Poor Afghans. Rich Afghans can afford taking their patients to Dubai and Europe. Where will we go?”
Cure International, based in central Pennsylvania, started in the 1990s and operates hospitals and programs in 29 countries. The organization focuses on health problems for which treatment is difficult to obtain in the developing world, including club foot, cleft palate and untreated burns, according to its website.
The Christian organization began operating in Afghanistan in 2005 by invitation of the Afghan Health Ministry. The hospital in west Kabul sees 37,000 patients a year, specializing in child and maternity health as well as general surgery.
Dale Brantner, the chief executive officer of Cure International, said Thursday that he does not believe the shootings were motivated by religion, because Christians with strong beliefs are generally respected in the Muslim world.
Umanos, the slain doctor, “was always working to help inner-city kids and trying to help out any needy, poor kids anywhere,” said Jeff Schuitema, his brother-in-law.
“Our families and friends have suffered a great loss, and our hearts are aching,” said Jan Schuitema, Umanos’ wife, at the family home in Chicago. “We don’t hold any ill will towards Afghanistan in general or even the gunman who did this. We don’t know what his history is.”
Schuitema, who is a teacher in Chicago and also spent time teaching in Afghanistan, said her husband “really did love Afghanistan and the Afghan people.”
“This should in no way negatively impact people’s feelings about the country or about the people in the country,” she said. “They are no different than us here.”
Mark Knecht, Cure International’s chief financial officer, said the organization “remains committed to serve the people of Afghanistan.”
He also asked for prayers for “the families of the victims and those affected bythe shooting, as well as the peace in Afghanistan.” Information for this article was contributed by Azam Ahmed, Habib Zahori, Haris Kakar and Alan Blinder of The New York Times; by Kay Johnson, Amir Shah, Peter Jackson, Don Babwin, Jason Keyser and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Tim Craig of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/25/2014