US woman kidnapped in Afghanistan

Kandahar suffers from both poverty and violence

An American aid worker has been kidnapped with her driver while travelling to work in a volatile region in southern Afghanistan.

Unknown gunmen took the pair outside of the southern city of Kandahar, said provincial governor Asadullah Khalid.

He blamed the kidnapping on the "enemy of Islam and the enemy of Afghanistan", Associated Press news agency said.

It quoted Mr Khalid as saying the unidentified 49-year-old US woman was wearing a burka when she was taken.

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He said the gunmen had not contacted the government or the aid agency Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, where she worked.

Mr Khalid added that police and intelligence officials were working to find the woman, who he said had lived in the country for years.

Followers of the hardline Taleban - ousted in 2001 - have been mounting a violent comeback over the past two years, centring on the south of the country.

There is also criminal violence in the region, associated with the opium poppy trade.