The vulnerability of aid workers in Afghanistan has been a constant source of concern for the many non-governmental organisations which operate in all parts of the country.

They are unarmed civilians, and yet they face the same dangers and risk to life as the tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers from Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) who serve in Afghanistan.

The difficulty for the aid workers is that they need to travel around the country, but they are reluctant to seek the protection of Isaf because they feel that would compromise their independence and make them even more vulnerable to attack by the Taleban.

This is an unresolvable dilemma in a country as unstable as Afghanistan, and means that if aid workers are going to do their job properly they have to accept the inevitable risks.

The latest attack on an aid worker, a British woman, is disturbing because it appeared to be a deliberate targeting of a Christian organisation, even though its principle role is to help disabled Afghans.

In August, another British woman was among three aid workers killed in an ambush by Taleban gunmen in one of the worst attacks on foreign civilians in Afghanistan in recent years.

The Taleban admitted responsibility and on that occasion claimed they had attacked the vehicle in which they were travelling because they were “military personnel”. The Briton, Dr Jackie Kirk, worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee which helps refugees in Afghanistan.

If the Taleban see no difference between a military patrol and a single vehicle carrying aid workers and bearing the name of their organisation on the side, it provides further evidence that foreigners operating in any capacity in Afghanistan are liable to be attacked by the insurgents irrespective of whether they are armed military personnel or aid workers trying to improve the lives of the local Afghans.

One of the main problems, particularly for those who need to travel outside Kabul and take one of the highways out of the capital, is that the Taleban have become adept at targeting the main supply routes. There are not enough Isaf troops or sufficiently incorrupt Afghan police officers in Afghanistan to safeguard the highways.

For example, the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar in the south which was built by the Americans at a cost of £110 million, has been targeted so many times by the Taleban and by bandits that it is now regarded as one of the most dangerous roads in the country.

Times Recommends

• Heed the great stabiliser’s words
• How a voice for everyone led to stalemate
• Bakara market becomes a slaughterhouse