Buissonnere (R) denounced  attempts to use humanitarian assistance to build support for military and political ambitions (AFP)

CAIRO, July 29 (IslamOnline.net) – Many activists in the international aid community heap blame on the United States and its so-called war on terror for the spiraling death toll among relief workers, reported a British newspaper on Thursday, July 29.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell was also singled out for a special blame for his controversial description of NGOs as the "force multipliers" of the military efforts against terrorism, reported The Independent.

"That was a disaster for us," said Dominic Nutt of Christian Aid.

"We can't be afford to be associated with the military or politicians. But we're not seen to be neutral any more because of the way the Americans have set things up in Afghanistan."

Nutt recalled that his group "worked in Afghanistan in the Soviet period and under the Taliban.

"This the most dangerous period for aid workers it's ever been. We're now targets."

He recalled that a relief worker who recently escaped death in Afghanistan said "the people who shot them were the Taliban, accusing them of being US agents."

Doctors Without Frontiers (MSF) announced on Wednesday, July 28, it would pull out of Afghanistan after 24 years, citing security concerns.

The Nobel-prize winning medical charity slammed the US-led forces for using humanitarian aid to further its political and military goals, creating a climate where aid workers were seen as legitimate targets for insurgents.

"The US-backed coalition has constantly sought to use humanitarian assistance to build support for its military and political ambitions and MSF denounces this attempt to co-opt humanitarian aid," said MSF Secretary General Marine Buissoniere.

US-led forces and international peacekeeping troops have set up reconstruction teams that use a combination of military and civil expertise to deliver aid in places where security is poor.

On Thursday, May 27, the European Union’s executive committee accused the US forces of endangering the lives of aid workers in southern Afghanistan.

The activity of relief workers is made dangerous by US-led troops in southern Afghanistan dressing in civilian clothes and using the same vehicles as aid agencies, European Commission spokesman Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe said.