In Kandahar central prison In southern Afghanistan, a Red Cross delegate talks with a juvenile detainee. The International Committee for the Red Cross announced May 31, 2013, that it has temporarily suspended operations in Afghanistan following an attack in Jalalabad in which a security guard was killed

KABUL, Afghanistan - The International Committee for the Red Cross said Friday it has temporarily suspended operations in Afghanistan following an attack this week in the eastern city of Jalalabad in which a security guard was killed and a staff member wounded.

The closure came as aid agencies across the war-torn country grow increasingly concerned about their ability to carry out humanitarian work after the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

"Because of the incident in Jalalabad we suspended all our activities in Jalalabad and our offices are closed until further notice," said Robin Waudo, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Afghanistan in a telephone interview. "In the past two days, we are not moving or carrying out activities in any part of the country."

Adding an element of mystery to the case, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousof Ahmadi said in a statement the group was not involved in Wednesday's strike. "We are not supporting this kind of attack," the group said, in a rare public denial.

The Taliban, which at times has taken credit for attacks it didn't organize and exaggerated those it was involved in, said it does not support strikes on an "independent" aid agency.

The denial could mean that the Red Cross was attacked by mistake, or that the Taliban wanted to distance it self from an attack its members committed, analysts said.

Waudo said the Red Cross will resume limited operations in locations other than Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, on Saturday, depending on the results of a security assessment. Among the questions the group is trying to answer, he said, include who was responsible for Wednesday's attack, what their motive was and how it could affect future operations.

"We can't point fingers and begin to speculate," Waudo said.

In the attack, two asssailants wearing suicide vests shot the group's security guard and entered the compound, then used heavy weapons and grenades in a two-hour fight with Afghan security before blowing themselves up. Seven international staff members were rescued.

The Jalalabad attack came five days after a strike on the Kabul headquarters of the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, an eight-hour firefight in the heart of the capital.

The Afghanistan NGO Security Office, which monitors security for aid groups, reported that 74 individual humanitarian organizations were victimized in 164 incidents in 2012, 56 percent by armed opposition groups, 32 percent by criminals and 12 percent by Afghan or international security forces.

While any attack is traumatic, analysts said, the Red Cross may be doubly rattled part because it is well regarded in Afghanistan, has rarely been targeted and often works with the Taliban and other insurgent groups as part of its bid to remain as independent as possible in any global conflict.

The Red Cross in the past has reportedly worked with the Taliban to carry out polio vaccine campaigns in areas it controls. And in 2010, it announced it was providing first aid training to the Taliban, consistent with a mandate to provide equal treatment to both armies and armed opposition groups in conflict around the world.

In June 2012 the Taliban praised the Red Cross as a group that works for ordinary Afghans, not the Afghan government or international forces, adding in a statement that the group had offered valuable help during the fight against the Soviets in the late 1980s.

Javid Kohistani a Kabul-based military analyst, said the two attacks on humanitarian groups within a week will probably have a psychological effect on most aid groups working in Afghanistan.

"Given the growing threats we face this year and next, I think most aid organizations will close their offices or reduce staff," he said. "Their decreased activities in Afghanistan will hurt us all."

Wednesday's attack was reportedly among the first aimed at Red Cross facilities in Afghanistan since it started operating in the country in 1987. The group has a $90 million operation and employs over 1,500 staff members in Afghanistan, its largest in any nation worldwide, undertaking projects ranging from water sanitation and amputee rehabilitation to protecting detainees and improving the outlook for farmers.

In a video posted on YouTube, Jacques De Maio, the Red Cross's head of operations for South Asia, said the Jalalabad attack was well planned and executed. "It rules out an isolated incident by some individual," he said. "The quality of the attack compels us precisely to redefine the level of danger there is for humanitarian players and for us to operate in the area."

Special correspondent Baktash reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Magnier from New Delhi.