Three American doctors were shot dead at a Christian hospital in Kabul Thursday by a government guard whose job was to protect them – the latest violence targeting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
One of those gunned down at Cure Hospital – which provides medical care to poor Afghan children – was identified as Dr. Jerry Umanos, a Chicago-based pediatrician.
Umanos practiced in inner-city Chicago before moving to Afghanistan in 2005, according to officials at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago, where he also worked.
The other victims, who were not identified, were father and son physicians who were visiting Umanos at the hospital, Afghan officials said. An American nurse was also wounded.
Umanos “felt called” to work in the war-torn country, treating kids and training other doctors, Dr. Bruce Rowell, a colleague at the hospital, told CNN.
“He was a loving, caring physician” who served his patients “with the utmost of respect,” Rowell said.
“He loved the country, he loved the people, he loved to teach,” another colleague told the network. “As much as we love and miss him, all of us have a certain level of respect and contentment knowing Jerry died doing what he loved most.”
His wife and grown children all live in the US, colleagues said.
The attack happened just before 9 a.m. Kabul time as doctors and nurses were arriving at the Cure Hospital, part of an international network of hospitals run by a Pennsylvania-based charity.
The Afghan security guard opened fire as the Americans entered a security vestibule at the hospital’s entrance.
The cop, identified only as Ainuddin, then blasted his way into an inner courtyard before he was he shot himself. He was quickly arrested, and the victims’ colleagues later performed surgery on the shooter.
“They were not the people carrying guns, they did not have military uniforms, they came here under immense pressure and were here only to serve the people of Afghanistan,” Health Minister Suriya Dalil said of the victims. “This was an inhumane and brutal action, and unfortunately will impact our health services.”
Afghan officials said they were investigating a motive.
“We are trying to determine the cause of this attack,” said Abdul Zahir, Kabul’s police chief.
But security experts said the latest in an increasing number of attacks on civilians showed that Taliban militants are running out of military targets as US and NATO coalition forces withdraw from the country.
The jihadis want “to frighten foreigners and disrupt their reconstruction and development work,” Javid Kohestani, a retired Afghan army general and Kabul-based security analyst, told The Washington Post.
“Their initial targets now seem to be Americans and Europeans, but they may also target Muslim foreigners to show that security is getting worse.”
The White House condemned the attack as “despicable and cowardly” and said it would continue to support Afghans who are committed to building a peaceful future.
The US Embassy in Kabul issued only a terse statement.
“With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack on CURE Hospital. No other information will be released at this time,” it read.
Twenty foreigners have been murdered in attacks targeting civilians in recent weeks during the run up to and following the country’s presidential election.
The Taliban has claimed credit for much of the bloodshed, including a assault on a hotel in Kabul on March 20 that killed nine people, including two Canadians.
Weeks later, another Afghan cop yelled “Allahu akbar” before opening fire on an Associated Press photographer and reporter in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan.
The photographer, German citizen Anja Niedringhaus, was killed, while the reporter, Kathy Gannon, a Canadian who had been covering the country since the war broke out, was badly wounded.
The civilian killings are reminiscent of the “green-on-blue” attacks in which insurgents posing as Afghan soldiers turned their weapons on NATO troops who were training or supervising them.
A total of 2,317 US troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began in October 2001.