WASHINGTON D.C. - A Filipino election volunteer was among five United Nations personnel killed in Wednesday's terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Philippine Mission to the United Nations said.

Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Hilario Davide identified the slain Filipina as Josie Esto, 40, an Electoral Outreach and Training Coordinator under the UN Volunteers Program.

Esto was killed when Taliban gunmen stormed the Bekhtar Guest House in Kabul's Shar-e-Now District being used by UN and other international workers.

The dawn attack, which left four other UN staff members dead, was later claimed by the Taliban.

Davide said Esto was a former school teacher who also worked as an electoral officer and civic education officer in the Philippines before serving as a UN volunteer in Liberia, Timor-Leste and Nepal.

She was married with two children aged 14 and 11.

Esto is the 4th Filipino UN staff member to die in terrorist attacks.

In 2003, Ranillo Buenaventura, a staff member of the UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, was killed in the suicide car bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

Last year, Gene Luna, a staff member of the World Food Program, was among the fatalities in the terrorist bombing of UN offices in Algiers, Algeria.

Perseveranda So, a staff member of the United Nations Children's Fund, died in a suicide bomb attack on a hotel housing international workers in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Esto's death came five years after Angelito Nayan, who is now posted with the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C., was kidnapped in Kabul while working as a UN volunteer assisting the 2004 Afghan elections.

Nayan was held for three weeks by the Taliban before he was released.

Davide said Esto had been in Afghanistan for just over a year and was among several UN volunteers working with the United Nations Development Program/Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow (UNDP-ELECT) Project, which is the primary vehicle through which the international community supports elections in Afghanistan.

He explained that the UNDP-ELECT works closely with electoral bodies such as the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan and provides project and program design and management, mobilization of donor funding, activity coordination, reporting and the channelling of funds for electoral support.