KABUL, (Reuters) – An international Christian aid  group denied yesterday Taliban accusations that its team of  foreign medical workers killed in Afghanistan’s remote northeast  had been proselytising.

The bodies of 10 medical aid workers, eight foreigners and  two Afghans, were flown by helicopter from Badakshan province  back to Kabul yesterday, the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital  said, confirming that six of the dead were American.

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) had said the  victims were members of its 12-strong eye care team that had  been working in Badakshan and neighbouring Nuristan.

IAM said the team consisted of six Americans, a German, a  British woman and four Afghans. Five of the foreigners were men  and three women. Two Afghans escaped alive.

On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the  killing, saying the medical workers had been carrying bibles in  Dari — one of Afghanistan’s two main languages — and were  killed because they were promoting Christianity.

Condemning the Taliban, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary  Clinton gave some details on what happened in a statement  released by the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

“The Taliban stopped them on a remote road on their journey  from Nuristan, led them into a forest, robbed them, and killed  them,” she said, rejecting the claim of spreading Christianity.

Dirk Frans, the executive director of IAM, told Reuters the  group was not involved in proselytisation.

“The accusation is completely baseless, they were not  carrying any bibles except maybe their personal bibles,” he  said. “As an organisation we are not involved in proselytising  at all.”