Six of eight aid workers killed in northernAfghanistan were identified by a forensic investigation as US nationals, the US embassy said Sunday, while the German foreign ministry confirmed one of the victims was a 35-year-old German woman, dpa reorted.
The joint probe by the Afghan government and Western officials began on Sunday after the bodies of the eight foreigners and their two local colleagues had been brought to the capital Kabul.
"We can now confirm that six Americans were among the deceased in Badakhshan," Caitlin Hayden, a US embassy spokeswoman said, but did not identify the dead.
In Berlin, the German government denounced the killings as a "cowardly act of murder" and called for the punishment of those responsible. The German victim had been from the East German Saxony region, the foreign ministry said, without giving further details.
A separate probe was also underway in northern Badakhshan to determine who was behind the attack that left five men, all Americans, and three women - among them one Briton, one German and one US national - dead, police said.
Local police found the bullet-riddled bodies of the eight medics on Friday in a remote forest on the border between Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces, where they were killed by a group of gunmen.
"Consular staff and FBI Special Agents assigned to the US Embassy in Kabul, alongside Afghan counterparts and representatives from the UK and German embassies, are now working to identify the victims of this tragic attack," Hayden had said earlier.
A Taliban spokesman took responsibility for the killings, saying they were "Christian missionaries." Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that the team was spying for NATO forces in the area and preaching Christianity by handing out bibles written in a local language.
Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), to which the victims belonged, rejected the Taliban claim as a "totally fabricated lie."
"We do not preach Christianity; we do not hand out bibles. That is not our work, we do the work that we have agreed with the government," he said.
Frans said that it was "highly unlikely" that the IAM would stop its work in Afghanistan after the forensic identifications to prove that those killed had been affiliated with its organizations.
"Militant, extremist Taliban have claimed responsibility for these killings. We do not know whether they are responsible or simply taking credit for the cowardly and despicable acts of others," Karl W. Eikenberry, the US ambassador for Afghanistan said in a statement.
"Their murder demonstrates the absolute disregard that terrorist-inspired Taliban and other insurgents have for your health, have for your security and have for your opportunity," Eikenberry said, adding: "They don't care about your future. They only care about themselves and their own ideology."
The ambassador said that despite the deaths, his government would continue to help Afghanistan until the country was no longer subjected to threat from "twisted terrorist groups".
Local authorities in Badakhshan said that police were investigating to find out which group was behind the attack. Shams- ul-Rahman Shams, the deputy provincial governor, said he did not rule out robbery as a motive behind the assault, as all of the victims' belongings had been stolen.
Only two Afghan members of the "Nuristan Eye Camp Team" survived. One took a different way to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, while the other - identified only as Saifullah - was not killed by the attackers because he said he had recited verses of the Koran to show that he was a Muslim.
Saifullah was brought to Kabul on Sunday for further questioning, a police spokesman said.
It was the deadliest attack yet on aid workers in Afghanistan. The militants have increased attacks on foreign civilian targets recently amid an increase in the number of foreign troops.
The British media identified one of the dead as Dr Karen Woo, 36, who had co-founded a charity called Bridge Afghanistan. Her organization raised thousands of dollars for emergency provisions for flood victims, education projects and medical supplies.
Woo was due to return to Britain and get married, reports said.
US national Dr Tom Little was reportedly another member of the team. Little had worked with IAM in Afghanistan for 33 years.