​A US-based website claims a Scots aid worker was working for MI6 before he death

A Scots aid worker killed in Afghanistan has been accused of being an MI6 spy.

Linda Norgrove was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2010 and killed during a botched rescue mission by US special forces.

A US-based website made the claim after it said it had been given insider information.

However Norgrove’s parents denied the claim saying the allegation was “hurtful”.

Norgrove was working on humanitarian projects when she was seized by rebels.

The claims emerged in a report on The Intercept website focusing on the activities of the US special forces which tried to free her.

It reports that the rescue operation was code-named Anstruther - in a nod to her Scottish heritage - and it was authorised by David Cameron, the prime minister at the time.

It adds: “The operation commanded high-level interest because Norgrove, though in Afghanistan as an aid worker for DAI, an American NGO, secretly worked with Britain's MI6, according to four US military and intelligence sources.”

In statement, Norgrove’s parents, John and Lorna, said: "These recent claims, emerging six years after our daughter died, are ridiculous. The people who have fabricated this story did not know Linda.

"We were very close to her and kept in touch every week by Skype throughout the life she had working in third world countries.

"Linda was passionately against war, disliked the military with a vengeance and mostly sided with Afghans rather than western governments.

"She loved her work, tirelessly striving to improve the lives of others by supporting projects which improved their environment."

"She was highly principled, would not compromise on her views and the suggestion that she was working for MI6 is both ludicrous and hurtful."

An inquest into Norgrove's death recorded a narrative verdict, which did not apportion blame to anyone. Wiltshire coroner David Ridley said the soldier who threw the grenade that killed her made a "critical decision in a fraction of a second".

Since her death, her parents have established The Linda Norgrove Foundation, which has raised more than £1m to help women and children in Afghanistan.