A roadside bomb killed an Afghan archaeologist near an ancient Buddhist excavation site, also home to the country's largest copper reserve, raising concerns about increasing threats to government-backed projects, officials said on Sunday. Security threats by insurgents have forced European and US archaeologists to pull out of the Mes Aynak site in recent years, leaving Afghan experts to pursue the work on their own and try to prevent rampant illegal mining.
Saturday's attack wounded four employees of the cultural ministry near the excavation site, 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, home to the remains of 5,000-year-old temples, residential areas, markets and a fortress. No group has claimed responsibility. Taliban militants, seeking to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, blew up two ancient giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan province in March that year because they were deemed un-Islamic.
"We never thought such action would be taken against us, because we are neither military nor high-ranking government officials," said archaeologist Mohammad Rabi Saber, a colleague of the victims.