Aid worker's captors still unknown

(CNN) -- No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of an American aid worker who was snatched from her car on the outskirts of Kandahar Saturday morning, officials with her aid organization in Afghanistan said Sunday.

Gunmen grabbed Cyd Mizell and her Afghan driver from a residential neighborhood in the southern Afghanistan province.

Her captors have not yet contacted her employer, Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, the group said on its Web site.

"This is a first for our organization and we're really praying for a quick resolution," said Jeff Palmer, international director for the foundation.

A spate of kidnappings have gripped Afghanistan recently, including the abduction of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers and a German woman last year.

To protect themselves, many foreigners have taken to driving around Kandahar with armed guards. Mizell, however, was not being escorted by private or government security, said Zmarai Bashiri, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

She "trusted the Afghan nation and respected them," Asadullah Khalid, Kandahar's provincial governor, is quoted as saying on the foundation's Web site. "That's why she was traveling without security guards and actually she didn't ask for security."

The foundation runs several projects in the Kandahar area, and also has a presence in about 12 other Asian countries.

Mizell, 49, has worked there for three years, traveling around the area clad in a burqa -- the traditional attire of some Afghani women that covers them from head to toe.

She speaks the local language fluently, and had been working on projects that help women and families learn ways to generate income. She also taught English at a high school and embroidery lessons at a girl's school, the organization said.

"She went to Afghanistan just as a real concern for the people and the turmoil within the country and just as far as trying to reach out to women," said Tony Rodgers of Acworth, Georgia, who's known Mizell for almost two decades.

The driver who was kidnapped, Muhammad Hadi, has been with the organization for two years. He is the father of five children, all under 15. E-mail to a friend

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