Afghan officials say a Dutch aid worker has been kidnapped in northern Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the provincial governor, Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi, says gunmen abducted the worker and his Afghan driver from their vehicle in Takhar province as it traveled toward Kunduz province on Monday.
Tawhidi says the two were working for an aid group helping the disabled.
Dutch officials confirmed the kidnapping, but gave few details. The foreign ministry said the Dutch embassy in Kabul is in constant contact with Afghan authorities to bring the matter to a "positive conclusion."
Afghanistan has become increasingly dangerous for aid workers. In August, 10 members of a Christian medical team were killed in northern Badakhshan province. And earlier this month, a British aid worker who was abducted by militants in eastern Afghanistan was killed during a rescue attempt.
Also Monday, NATO says a raid and subsequent airstrike killed 15 insurgents in southern Afghanistan.
The alliance said the militants were killed in an overnight Afghan-NATO operation against a senior Taliban leader in the Baghran district of Helmand province.
NATO says troops took fire from insurgents as they secured compounds in the area, and eventually called in an airstrike after ensuring no civilians were in the area.
But provincial officials say 25 people, including civilians, were killed in the airstrike. Local residents say a mosque was also destroyed during the operation.
In eastern Afghanistan, officials say a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police checkpoint in Khost province Monday, killing three people, including a police officer.
Afghan officials say another suicide bomber targeted a foreign troop convoy in the capital of northern Baghlan province, Pul-e-Khumri, Monday. Officials say the attacker was killed, but no one else was injured in the blast.
Also Monday, NATO said an insurgent attack the day before killed one of its service members in eastern Afghanistan. The latest casualty brings the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 600. This year has already been the deadliest for international forces in Afghanistan since the beginning of the nine-year war.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
