Informant38

Reuters.com: Two Killed in Afghan Blast, Aid Agency Pulls Out

More than 900 people have been killed in violence during the past year that has targeted foreign and local troops, aid workers and people involved in preparing for the country's first free, direct elections.
MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel prize-winning aid organization, said it was leaving Afghanistan because of fears for the safety of staff after five workers, including three foreigners, were attacked and killed on a remote road in the northwest in June.

The group issued a stinging rebuke of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, saying they had used aid work to help them win over Afghans skeptical of their intentions.
"MSF denounces this attempt to co-opt humanitarian aid, to use humanitarian aid to win hearts and minds," MSF secretary general Marine Buissonniere told a briefing, adding that in doing so it had endangered the lives of aid workers.

The decision will be a blow to the Afghan government, which relies heavily on humanitarian aid in its impoverished and war-shattered country.