Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker held captive by terrorists in eastern Afghanistan, died in a suicide bomb blast just as rescue was agonizingly close. NATO said that even as US commandos entered the compound to rescue her, she suffered fatal wounds from a suicide bomb detonated by the terrorists. For Norgrove ’s family, it turned from hope to heart-wrenching tragedy.

It was all over within moments of the arrival of the US Special Forces, who were close to freeing 36-year-old Norgrove in the wee hours of the morning. Soldiers forced their way into the Taliban stronghold in Kunar province, but Norgrove ’s captor in a suicide vest thwarted their efforts in a despicable attack which claimed the life of an activist dedicated to Afghanistan.

It was said at a media conference in Kabul that US medics gave her life-supporting drugs and first aid, but she succumbed to injuries while being evacuated by a helicopter. The siege in the mud-walled compound in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan has seven insurgents killed.

A NATO spokesperson said that the insurgent in a suicide vest was standing near enough to Linda Norgrove to inflict fatal injuries. Emergency medical aid could not resuscitate her.

Working for DAI, Norgrove was committed to Afghanistan’s development mission. This is the third death of a Brit aid-worker in the hostile Af-Pak border terrain this summer alone.

Linda Norgrove ’s grieving family has been on tenterhooks ever since her capture, and are now gathered in the Isle of Lewis located the Outer Hebrides, where she was born.

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