May 5 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents on Saturday extended a deadline for a deal for the release of a French aid worker until after Sunday's French presidential elections.

Here is a chronology of killings and kidnappings of aid workers in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001 by U.S.-led forces:

Feb. 16, 2002 - An Afghan aid worker is killed near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when a warehouse used by Irish relief agency GOAL is hit by a rocket during factional fighting.

Feb. 16, - An Afghan employee of the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, is shot in the leg by gunmen trying to kidnap him in Mazar-i-Sharif.

March 27, 2003 - Ricardo Munguia, an El Salvadorean Red Cross aid worker, is shot dead by Taliban in Kandahar province.

Aug. 13 - Two Afghan aid workers with the Afghan Red Crescent Society are killed in a Taliban ambush southwest of Kabul.

Nov. 16 - U.N. refugee aid worker Bettina Goislard, 29, is murdered by Taliban in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, leading to the closure of several U.N. refugee centres.

Feb. 25, 2004 - Suspected Islamic militants shoot dead five Afghan aid workers of the Sanayee Development Foundation, a community project, on a road east of Kabul.

March 6 - Mohammad Isah, a director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, is shot dead in Zabul province.

June 2 - Five staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres are killed when gunmen open fire on their car in the northwest, prompting the agency to leave the country after 24 years.

Aug. 3 - Shots from a passing vehicle kill Mohammed Idrees Sadiq, an Afghan field officer employed by the Malteser Germany agency and his driver on a road south of Kabul.

Sept. 7 - Ten foreign and local NGO workers are injured in mob attacks on foreign aid agency offices in the northern province of Badakhshan.

Oct. 28 - Gunmen kidnap three U.N. election workers in Kabul. They are freed unharmed after almost four weeks by a Taliban splinter group.

May 16, 2005 - Gunmen kidnap Clementina Cantoni, an Italian worker from the CARE International aid agency, in Kabul. She is released after more than three weeks.

Sept 9 - Diego Rojas Coronel, a Colombian aid worker, and two Afghan colleagues are kidnapped. They were freed three weeks later.

May 12, 2006 - A doctor from a German aid agency and a U.N. children's fund driver are killed when their vehicle is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Herat province.

May 30 - Taliban gunmen shoot dead three Afghan women working for ActionAid.

March 8, 2007 - A German aid worker is shot dead while travelling with colleagues on a road in northern Afghanistan.

April 3 - Taliban insurgents kidnap a French man and woman working for the Terre d'Enfance aid group, along with three Afghan colleagues. The woman is freed on April 28.

Source: Reuters

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