Masked gunmen have shot dead 10 mine clearers working for the Halo Trust in Afghanistan’s northern province of Baghlan, and wounded more than a dozen.
The workers were killed when gunmen burst into their compound at 21:50 (17:20 GMT) on Tuesday, after they had spent a day removing mines from a nearby field.
The Islamic State group (IS) said it had carried out the attack.
Afghan officials had blamed the Taliban, who denied involvement.
Halo Trust CEO James Cowan told the media that the local Taliban had, on the contrary, helped in the aftermath.
IS made the claim in a statement via its channels on the messaging app Telegram.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan since the US began to withdraw its last troops on 1 May.
The departure of international troops comes amid a deadlock in peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Mr Cowan of the Halo Trust told media that the attackers had gone “bed to bed” shooting the workers “in cold blood” – but that the local Taliban had helped the deminers.
“I think it’s important to know that the Taliban have denied responsibility for this, and indeed the local Taliban group came to our aid and scared the assailants off,” he said.
“I think we have the capacity as the Halo Trust to operate on both sides of the line in this awful conflict,” he added.
Mr Cowan later said Afghan service that the attackers had specifically targeted members of the Hazara ethnic minority group.
Hazaras, Afghanistan’s third-largest ethnic group, have faced long-term discrimination and persecution, primarily because of their Shia Muslim faith. In recent years, they have faced abductions and killings at the hands of IS and the Taliban, which are both Sunni Muslim.
“A group of armed men came to our camp and sought out members of the Hazara community, and then murdered them,” Mr Cowan said. “This was not expected. The broader security situation [in Afghanistan] is understood, but this kind of cold-blooded killing was not expected.”
After an interior ministry spokesman told reporters that the Taliban had carried out the attack, the militant group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted that it condemned attacks on the defenceless.
“We have normal relations with NGOs [non-governmental organisations]. Our Mujahideen will never carry out such brutal attacks,” he said.
Several districts in Baghlan province have seen fierce fighting between the Taliban and government forces.
