ONE of the BBC’s reporters in Afghanistan has been killed in an attack in the eastern Khost province.
Ahmad Shah, 29, had worked for the BBC’s Afghan service for more than a year and “had already established himself as a highly capable journalist who was a respected and popular member of the team”.
He was killed on the same day a co-ordinated double suicide bombing in the capital, Kabul, killed 25 people, including at least nine other journalists.
BBC World Service Director Jamie Angus called it a “devastating loss” and sent his “sincere condolences to Ahmad Shah’s friends and family and the whole BBC Afghan team”.
Talib Mangal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Khost, said Shah was shot dead, without providing further details.
The suicide bombing attack, claimed by Daesh, was the deadliest to target journalists since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
A few hours later another suicide car bombing in Kandahar killed 11 children, police in the southern province said.
Agence France-Presse reported that the news agency’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was among those killed in Kabul.
AFP said Marai died in the second blast which targeted a group of journalists who had rushed to the scene of the earlier suicide attack in the capital.
Sediqullah Tawhidi, an official from the committee, said a cameraman form the local Tolo TV was also among those killed.
Police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said the first suicide bomber in Kabul was on a motorbike while the second attacker was among the crowd of reporters who rushed to the scene of the first attack, pretending to be one of the media.
He added that the second attacker then detonated his explosives while still among the reporters.
The suicide attacks took place in the central Shash Darak area, which is home to the Nato headquarters and a number of embassies in Afghanistan. The second was meant to hit those rushing to the scene of the attack to help the victims of the first blast.
Kabul chief of police Dawood Amin said the area of Kabul that was targeted, which includes many foreign offices, was quickly sealed off.
In the Kandahar attack, an official said a suicide bomber targeted a Nato convoy in the district of Daman but killed 11 children from a religious school near the site of the blast.
Romania’s defence minister said eight Romanian troops were wounded in the attack.
General John Nicholson, commander of Nato’s Resolute Support mission, said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those wounded, and with the innocent Afghans whose lives were needlessly taken from them by the enemies of Afghanistan.”
General Nicholson said that “if the enemies of Afghanistan think their cowardly actions will deter the commitment of the brave Afghan forces and our Resolute Support advisers, or the call by the Afghan people for peace, they are sorely mistaken”.
The children from the madrasa had gathered around the convoy when the bomber struck, one witness said.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here