Two Afghan interpreters were also shot to death. And despite the Taliban's "accusations," they were not missionaries but rather humanitarian workers bringing live saving medical care to an area that desperately needed it.

Voice of America:

n international Christian charity said Saturday that militants killed part of its 12-member medical team, including six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.

Officials with the group International Assistance Mission say the members of the medical team, including women, were killed while returning to Kabul from an eye clinic in the northern Nuristan province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A Taliban spokesman told news agencies that they killed the members of the group because they were Christian missionaries.

One Afghan traveling with the group said the attackers spared him after he recited passages from the Koran and said he was a Muslim.

The director of International Assistance Mission Dirk Frans denies the Taliban's accusations that the members of his group were missionaries. He says they were on a peaceful mission to help people in a remote area of Afghanistan.