US to probe UK aid worker death

Obama pledges a full investigation into botched raid

KABUL, Afghanistan -President Barack Obama promised "to get to the bottom" of a failed rescue attempt by United States special forces that ended in the death a captive British aid worker in Afghanistan, after NATO said an American grenade may have killed her.

Obama offered his condolences to UK Prime Minister David Cameron in a phone call on Monday and promised a full investigation.

NATO initially said a Taliban bomb killed Linda Norgrove, 36, during Friday's operation to free her from a compound in the eastern province of Kunar.

However, the coalition said on Monday that, after reviewing surveillance footage, it is possible US forces may have thrown a grenade that killed Norgrove nearly two weeks after she was kidnapped while traveling in the east.

"The review showed what was believed to be a member of the rescue team throwing a hand grenade in the area near where Ms Norgrove was later found," said NATO spokeswoman Major Sunset Belinsky.

"It's now unclear what the exact circumstances surrounding her death are, and the investigation will attempt to determine the facts," she said.

The US military, which carried out the raid because the aid worker was being held in a region under American command, said it would investigate the incident with British cooperation.

The White House said Obama and Cameron both said the rescue operation was necessary and "agreed that it was now essential to get to the bottom of what had happened in the course of the rescue operation".

Cameron defended Friday's rescue mission.

"We were clear that Linda's life was in grave danger and the operation offered the best chance of saving her life," Cameron told reporters at a news conference on Monday.

Norgrove, from Scotland's Isle of Lewis, worked on a US-funded aid project for Development Alternatives Inc, a Washington organization

She was abducted in an ambush on Sept 26 while driving toward Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, according to Afghan officials. She was to oversee projects in the area.

Associated Press

(China Daily 10/13/2010 page12)