* British aid worker was kidnapped last month
* Four Italian troops killed in attack
* Karzai seeks tribal support for southern offensive
(Recasts, adds details on previous rescue, aid group)
By Patrick Markey
KABUL, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A British aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan last month has been killed by her captors during a rescue bid and four NATO soldiers died in an insurgent ambush, the latest deaths in an increasingly bloody conflict.
President Hamid Karzai has sought tribal support for a NATO-led offensive against the Taliban in their southern heartland to try and turn the tide in a conflict that has dragged on for more than nine years.
Linda Norgrove, 36, who worked for a U.S. aid group, had been abducted on Sept. 26 along with three Afghan co-workers when they visited a project in a remote part of Kunar province, a lawless region bordering Pakistan.
"Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers. From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement on Saturday.
He gave no further details on the Friday night rescue bid. But a British Foreign Office source said U.S. troops had attempted the rescue. Norgrove, an ex-U.N. worker, headed a ${esc.dollar}150 million U.S. aid project designed to build local economies.
Her death highlights the increasing dangers faced by aid workers in Afghanistan, where insurgents and other armed groups hold sway in many parts of the country.
"This is devastating news," said James Boomgard, president of her organization, DAI, a private company involved in development.
In August, eight foreign medical workers, including a British female doctor, as well as two Afghans, were killed by unidentified gunmen in the remote northeast. Insurgents are still holding two French journalists seized last December.
The rescue attempt was not the first such operation. A raid that freed New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a Briton, from his Afghan captors last year provoked anger after his Afghan colleague and a British soldier were killed.
The Afghan war is weighing increasingly on U.S. President Barack Obama&${esc.hash}39;s administration as he and his NATO allies face pressure at home to end the unpopular war. The focus now is increasingly on possible talks between Karzai and the Taliban.
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