Italian Embassy official Cristiano Congiu

Italian anti-narcotics Police Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Cristiano Congiu was killed in Afghanistan last week.

Lt. Col. Congiu had worked at the Italian embassy in Kabul for four years. His assignment ended on 31st May, and he travelled to the Mokni Valley in Panjsher province to visit emerald mines with an un-named American woman and an Afghan interpreter.

There are different versions of the circumstances surrounding his death. Some Afghan sources say he was beaten to death by a mob after he shot a local man who had assaulted his female companion. Other sources say he was shot by locals.

50-year-old Lt. Col. Congiu, from Rome, leaves a wife and daughter who live in Pontecorvo, Italy.

Italian officials are still investigating the killing.

January death toll in Afghanistan - 100 civilians, 80 police

Kabul - The death toll in January in Afghanistan reached 100 civilians and 80 police, from a total of more than 300 attacks, the interior ministry announced on 6th February. 

The figure for January represents a four per cent drop on December's figures. Most of the civilian victims were killed by roadside bombs, the favoured weapon of the Islamist militias. 

'Unfortunately one hundred of our innocent civilian countrymen and women were martyred in January and 148 others were wounded in various attacks,' Zemarai Bashiri, interior ministry spokesman said in his weekly press conference in Kabul. 

A total of 2,400 civilians were killed in 2010. 

'Police causalities jumped by 21 percent in the first month of 2011, unfortunately,' Bashari said.

Afghan security forces killed 286 armed insurgents in January, Bahsiri said. 

'Security forces were able to detain 559 suspected militants involved in destructive attacks last month. Also 574 bombs were defused by security forces all over in Afghanistan,' the interior ministry official added. 

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur