(CNN) -- U.S. officials issued scathing condemnation Sunday of an attack on 10 multinational medical aid workers in Afghanistan as the victims' bodies were returned to Kabul.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack, said Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, but "we do not know whether they are responsible or simply taking credit for the cowardly and despicable acts of others".
Six Americans, two Afghans, a Briton and a German were shot and killed by gunmen in Badakhshan, a remote northeastern region of the country, said Dirk Frans, the director of the International Assistance Mission. Two other Afghans on the team were alive, Frans said.
Eikenberry said officials were working to identify the victims.
Thomas Grams of Durango, Colorado, was among the Americans who died, Katy Shaw, an administrator with Global Dental Relief, said Sunday. Grams had been working with the group for 10 years, she said, and had been to Afghanistan several times, along with Nepal. He was a general dentist who gave up his private practice to do relief work, she said. Grams started as a volunteer with the group, which provides dental care for impoverished children, but later became a team leader.
"He was one of our favorites," Shaw said, describing Grams as quiet, unassuming and modest. CNN
