4 U.N. Workers Killed in Initial Strike

Washington, Oct. 9

The United Nations said today

that four of its workers were killed and four

others were injured near Kabul in the latest round

of bombing by the United States Against Afghanistan.

At a news conference in Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, a

spokeswoman for the United Nations said that the workers

were killed when a missile destroyed a building housing

Afghan Technical Consultancy, the agency that oversees

mine clearing operations in Afghanistan. The building is

several miles east of Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

The spokeswoman said that all eight of the workers were

Afghans and were civilians.

It is the first independent report of civilian deaths resulting

from the United States-led military action since the attacks

began on Sunday.

There was no immediate response from Washington on the

deaths and injuries to the United Nations workers.

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily-minded countries in

the world and the United Nations began a mine-clearing

program there last year.

The United Nations appealed for the protection of civilians

in the military strikes against Afghanistan.

The Taliban authorities estimated the death toll from the

first day's raids at between 8 and 20. American officials

had no comment on possible casualties.

American officials said C-17's flying at 30,000 feet again

dropped more than 35,000 food and medicine packets, but

some international aid organizations criticized the effort.

"It's an act of marketing, aimed more at public opinion than

saving lives," Thomas Gonnet, head of operations in

Afghanistan for the French group Action Against Hunger,

told Agence France-Presse.