10 Journalists among dozens killed in Afghan attacks

Ten journalists including Agence France-Presse’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, were among dozens killed in multiple attacks across Afghanistan today, in the deadliest day for the country’s media since 2001.

Two suicide blasts in Kabul killed 25 people including Marai along with at least eight other journalists, in what Reporters Without Borders said was the most lethal single attack on the media since the fall of the Taliban.

The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, was condemned internationally by groups including the United Nations and the European Union, and spurred an outpouring of grief among Afghan journalists, many of whom took to Twitter to post tributes to colleagues and friends.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said the second explosion came minutes after the first and targeted reporters at the scene.

“The bomber disguised himself as a journalist and detonated himself among the crowd,” he said.

The interior ministry confirmed the number of deaths and said 49 people had been wounded amid fears the toll could rise.

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Later Monday the BBC confirmed that one of its reporters, 29-year-old Ahmad Shah, was killed in a separate attack in eastern Khost province, near the border with Pakistan.

The broadcaster did not immediately give further details.

In a third attack 11 children were killed and 16 people wounded, including foreign and Afghan security force members, when a suicide attacker exploded his bomb-laden car near a convoy in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack, which brought the total number of people killed across the country to 37.