USAID worker hacked to death in Bangladesh

A U.S. government aid worker and LGBT advocate was hacked to death in his home in Bangladesh on Monday, the State Department confirmed.

The killing of Xulhaz Mannan and his friend in Mannan’s apartment in the capital city of Dhaka comes two days after an English professor was killed in a similar fashion on his way to work as part of a string of grisly murders linked to Islamic extremists.

{mosads}“An act like this is simply beyond words — unjustifiable, inexcusable,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said from Washington.

The killing was “atrocious and barbaric,” he added.

Mannan performed work for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and was also the editor of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price confirmed that Manna worked for USAID and “served the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka with distinction,” but he did not detail his role for the U.S. government.

“Mr. Mannan set an example of dignity, courage, and selflessness, and his legacy will live on in the causes he championed,” Price said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

In Washington, Kirby confirmed that he has done work for USAID and was “affiliated with the U.S. Embassy family,” but he did not detail his work for the U.S. government.

Local police told The Guardian that roughly a half-dozen people entered Mannan’s apartment building posing as couriers before launching the attack in his first-floor home. Two other people were seriously injured in the incident. 

The killing comes as part of a troubling series of attacks that have been blamed on Islamic extremists.

On Saturday, English professor Rezaul Karim Siddique was hacked to death on the street in the northwest city of Rajshahi. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took credit for the violence.

Earlier in the month, a secular blogger and law student was murdered near his university in Dhaka.

The State Department refused to assign a motive for the killings on Monday, citing the ongoing investigation.

“There’s a lot of work that has to be done, and I don’t want to leap ahead of an investigation and try to represent outcomes or intent here,” Kirby said. “What we do know is that he was a staunch defender of LGBT rights. That’s beyond dispute.”

The United States has offered support to Bangladesh “to ensure that the cowards that did this are held accountable,” Kirby said.

– This story was updated at 5:22 p.m.