The UN has announced it will redeploy 600 “non-front-line” workers in Afghanistan, pulling workers from the provinces to the capital, Kabul. Some will temporarily leave the country, said Kai Ende, the UN’s chief in Afghanistan. “We are not talking about pulling out. We are not talking about evacuation,” Ende said. Five UN employees and their three Afghans assailants were killed a week ago in an attack on a residence housing UN workers.

But, he said, “there is a belief among some, that the international community (presence) will continue whatever happens because of the strategic importance of Afghanistan,” he told a press conference this morning. “I would like to emphasise that that’s not true”. He urged the Afghan government to combat the corruption that many say is playing into the hands of the Taliban insurgency.

The UN has 1,300 international workers in Afghanistan.