Slain Afghanistan aid volunteers lauded for efforts

KABUL - One gave up a lucrative practice to give free dental care to children who had never seen a toothbrush.

Others had devoted whole decades of their lives to helping the Afghan people through war and deprivation.

The years of service ended in a hail of bullets in a remote valley of a land that members of the medical team had learned to love.

The bodies of the 10 slain volunteers - six Americans, two Afghans, a German and a Briton - were flown Sunday back to Kabul by helicopter, even as friends and family bitterly rejected the claims of the Taliban, which has taken responsibility for the attack, that the group had tried to convert Afghans to Christianity.

Among the Americans identified by family and friends were Tom Little, an optometrist originally from Delmar in upstate New York who led the medical team; Dr. Thomas Grams, 51, a dentist from Durango, Colo., who gave up his practice to give free care to Afghan children; Cheryl Beckett, 32, of Knoxville, Tenn., who specialized in nutritional gardening; Glen Lapp, 40, of Lancaster, Pa., a trained nurse who was working as executive assistant for the aid group; and Dan Terry, 64, who like Little had for decades lived in Afghanistan for aid work.

Also flown to the capital was the lone survivor of the Thursday attack, an Afghan driver who said he was spared because he was a Muslim and recited Islamic holy verses as he begged for his life. The International Assistance Mission, which organized the trip, said the driver had been a trusted employee with four years of service.

In Washington Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the Taliban for a "despicable act of wanton violence" and what she called a "transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about their activities."

Clinton said she was heartbroken by the loss of the aid workers, and called their service in providing care to impoverished Afghans "heroic" and "generous." She added the killings will not stop the international community from helping the Afghan people.

The group had spent two weeks treating villagers in a remote valley in northern Afghanistan for eye diseases and other ailments before being ambushed on their way back to Kabul. The team was attacked in the Parun valley of Nuristan province, about 160 miles north of Kabul. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found Friday.

The members of the group were working with the IAM, one of the longest serving nongovernmental organizations operating in Afghanistan. The group is registered a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize, said its director, Dirk Frans.