A 40-year-old Briton was among three women aid workers killed yesterday in an ambush by Taleban gunmen in one of the worst attacks on foreign civilians in Afghanistan in recent years.

The body of Jacqueline Kirk and the two other women, as well as their Afghan driver, were found riddled with bullets in the province of Logar, about 50km (30 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

The women were travelling from the eastern city of Gardez to Kabul in two vehicles when they were attacked by five gunmen on a road near the town of Pul-i-Alam. A second driver was critically wounded but survived.

Agencies say that there has been a sharp rise in attacks on aid workers in Afghanistan; 84 incidents have been reported already this year.

Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taleban spokesman, admitted responsibility for yesterday’s attack but claimed that the vehicle was carrying military personnel, “most of them female”.

The three women, who worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), which helps refugees, were passengers in a Toyota Land Cruiser that was clearly marked with IRC stickers. Their attackers drove in front of them to cut them off and opened fire with rifles. There was evidence that the gunmen had broken the vehicle’s windows and fired at the passengers and drivers at close range.

The IRC last night named the other victims as Nicole Dial, 30, a dual citizen of the US and Trinidad, and Shirley Case, 30, from Canada. The driver killed was named as Mohammad Aimal, 25, from Kabul, who had worked for the IRC for six years.

Dr Kirk, who lived in Quebec but was raised in Britain, joined the IRC in 2004. She graduated from Bristol University and completed a PhD at McGill University in Canada. She was an expert in children’s education programmes and a research fellow at the University of Ulster, which described her death as a huge loss.

The deaths have highlighted the dangers faced by the hundreds of international aid workers who risk their lives in Afghanistan.

Aid agencies say that 19 Afghan staff working for nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have been killed this year. At least five international aid workers have also been kidnapped and held hostage.

An official working for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Kabul said that aid workers did not choose to seek the protection of military patrols or convoys because they felt that “being seen next to Isaf soldiers in uniform might make them more of a target”.

The IRC suspended its humanitarian aid programmes in Afghanistan after the killings. Two Afghan IRC workers were shot dead in Logar in July last year. The organisation has 542 staff in Afghanistan, 11 of whom are expatriates. Three district IRC offices have been attacked and destroyed since March.

The increasing number of attacks on aid workers has forced NGOs to restrict humanitarian work, even in areas that are considered relatively safe. However, as an Isaf official said yesterday: “There isn’t really a safe place in Afghanistan.”

Organisations with direct links to countries, such as the US Agency for International Development, are given threat-assessment advice when travelling around Afghanistan. NGOs, however, have to make judgments about the risks of travelling on Afghan roads, with the daily threat posed by Taleban fighters and bandits.

President Karzai condemned the killings as unforgivable. Abdullah Wardak, governor of Logar province, said that the three women and their driver were killed by “the opposition forces”. Aleem Siddique, a United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan, described it as a cowardly attack. This year has been the most deadly for aid workers in Afghanistan since the US-led operation in 2001 to overthrow the Taleban regime.

Kai Eide, the top UN official in Kabul, said: “The IRC provides life-saving humanitarian assistance to those most affected by the conflict and it is reprehensible that such selfless individuals working for the most vulnerable communities should be deliberately targeted.

“We face a growing humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan and all parties to this conflict must recognise and respect the inherent neutrality and independence of the humanitarian assistance being provided to those Afghans who need our help the most.”

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