Kabul attack: Fil-Am doctor among dead

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino-American doctor was among three people killed on Thursday when a security guard opened fire in a Kabul hospital funded by a US Christian charity, the Philippine embassy in Washington said yesterday. 

Among the three Americans killed was  Jerry Umanos, a Chicago pediatrician who volunteered for nearly a decade in Afghanistan training medical residents and seeing patients, according to the Chicago health center where he worked.

“Our condolences to the family of Dr. Jerry Umanos,” the embassy said on its Twitter account.

“He was a loving, caring physician who served all of his patients with the utmost respect,” said Bruce Rowell, a pediatrician at Chicago’s Lawndale Christian Health Center.

The shooting occurred in the grounds of the Cure Hospital. Afghan officials said Umanos was gunned down along with a father and a son visiting the hospital.

The security guard shot himself after the attack and was treated at the hospital before being transferred to Afghan custody, Mark Knecht, chief financial officer of Cure International, said in a televised statement.

Knecht said two other people were injured, but did not elaborate.

The Cure Hospital specializes in children’s and maternal health. It is considered one of the country’s leading hospitals, in addition to being a training institution.

“They were not the people carrying guns, they did not have military uniforms, they came here under immense pressure and were here only to serve the people of Afghanistan,” Health Minister Suriya Dalil said of the victims. “This was an inhumane and brutal action, and unfortunately will impact our health services.”

The White House condemned the attack as “despicable and cowardly” and said it would continue to support Afghans who are committed to building a peaceful future.

The Cure organization began operating the hospital in 2005, at the invitation of the Afghan government, and 27 doctors and 64 nurses work there, according to Cure’s website.

The attack came nearly three weeks after the Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was killed and reporter Kathy Gannon, 60, wounded while they were sitting in the back of a car in the east of the country.

The assault on the journalists came shortly after an Afghan journalist with the Agence France-Presse news agency was killed alongside eight people when Taliban gunmen opened fire inside a luxury hotel in the center of Kabul.

Also in March, a gunman shot dead Swedish journalist Nils Horner, 51, outside a restaurant in Kabul.