Linda Norgrove, 36, had spent years working for charities and development projects in Afghanistan, and was on an American project in eastern Kunar province when her convoy was ambushed on Sept. 26. Police fought a gunbattle with the kidnappers before they escaped with Norgrove and three of her Afghan colleagues.
The Afghan men were later released unharmed, but Norgrove was held hostage for nearly two weeks before NATO forces decided to try to rescue her in a secret raid Friday night.
UK Foreign Office / AP
Aid worker Linda Norgrove was killed Friday night during an attempt to free her from Taliban militants, who kidnapped her on Sept. 26.
"Working with our allies we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement today, confirming her death.
The statement said Norgrove "was killed at the hands of her captors in the course of a rescue attempt last night," according to Bloomberg News. Hague expressed "deep sadness" at the news.
Over the past two weeks, Britain had asked that media not identify Norgrove in reports about her kidnapping, believing that the Taliban might think she's more valuable if her name were known to the public. Friday night's raid was conducted by American elite special forces units, Sky News reported.
"Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers. From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat," Hague said, according to Sky.
"It is a tragedy that Linda was taken whilst doing the job she loved in a country she loved," MSNBC also quoted Hague as saying.
Norgrove was born in Scotland and grew up in the Outer Hebrides, which are islands off Scotland's west coast. She studied in Scotland, Oregon, London and Mexico, and wrote her PhD thesis on indigenous people in Uganda, MSNBC reported.
She went on to work for the World Wildlife Fund in Peru, the United Nations in Laos and then in Afghanistan. Most recently, Norgrove was the regional director for a five-year, $150 million USAID project in Afghanistan designed to create jobs, boost the economy and improve local Afghan leadership.