Leading article: The dangers of aiding Afghanistan

General David Petraeus, the new head of the US Central Command, has said he expects the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan to get worse before it gets better. On yesterday morning's evidence, he is right. At 8am, Gayle Williams, from the Christian charity Serve Afghanistan, was killed on her walk to work. Two men dismounted from a scooter, shot her and drove off.

Ms Williams worked with disabled Afghans to whom, Taliban militants claim, she was proselytising. The charity flatly denies this. What is certainly true is that she was killed because she worked for a Christian charity, and the attack reflects a widening campaign by the Taliban to target foreign civilians. In August, three women aid workers, including a British citizen, and their Afghan driver, were killed in an ambush 50km from Kabul. Now, the Taliban have struck in Kabul itself, illustrating just how dangerous all Afghanistan has become.

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NGOs providing help with reconstruction were always an integral part of the Nato strategy for Afghanistan. The thinking was that the military would clear the terrain and secure it, and civilian aid workers would then come in with imaginative projects to improve the infrastructure and ease everyday life for ordinary people. Success here was seen as essential to convince Afghans that Nato forces were not hostile and that the intervention was worthwhile.

For many reasons, including the separate national military groups operating in Afghanistan under the Nato umbrella, and the many NGOs operating in different parts of the country, the reality has been rather different. A lack of cohesion between the military and civilian efforts has led to confusion on the ground. Reconstruction is still pitifully underfunded and remains at an elementary stage.

But some reconstruction is still better than none. If insurgents terrorise the NGOs out of the country, it will be a disaster for Western policy and for the many Afghans who stood to benefit. The territory – in every sense – will have been ceded to the Taliban. Unless reconstruction can be made more effective, seven years of Western intervention will be seen as leaving only penury and disorder in its wake. As Nato reviews its operations in Afghanistan, dovetailing the military and civilian efforts must be a priority.