10 Journalists, 15 Others Die in Kabul Blasts

Two suicide blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul killed 25 people including10 journalists documenting the scene. One of them was identified as Agence France-Presse’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, AFP reported on Monday.

Also killed in a separate attack in the Khost region was BBC reporter 29-year-old Ahmad Shah.

The blasts, described by Reporters Without Borders as the most lethal single attack on the media since the fall of the Taliban,

followed on the heels of each other.

The first explosion, according to BBC, was carried out by an attacker on a motorbike. A second, AFP reported Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai as saying, followed about 15 minutes later after a crowd, including several reporters, had gathered at the scene.

The Islamic State group (IS) said it had carried out the attack.

But it was one of several fatal incidents on Monday. A third attack, 11 children were killed in a suicide bombing intended to target NATO troops in Kandahar province.

In the Kabul attack, the AFP news agency said the second blast had deliberately targeted the group of journalists, including its photographer Marai.

“The bomber disguised himself as a journalist and detonated himself among the crowd,” AFP quoted Stanikzai as saying.

At least eight journalists and four police officers were among the dead, interior minister spokesperson Najib Danish told the BBC. So far, 45 people have been reported injured.

The attack has been 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.

Journalists from Radio Free Europe and Afghan broadcasters Tolo News and 1TV, as well as others, were among those killed in Kabul, Reporters Without Borders said.

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