Journalists targeted in Afghan terror attacks

Twenty-six people, including nine journalists, were killed yesterday in a series of explosions in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The attacks “underlined mounting insecurity despite repeated government pledges to tighten defences”, Reuters reports.

AFP’s chief photographer in Kabul, Shah Marai, was among the journalists targeted by a man disguised as a TV cameraman, who detonated a second bomb at the site of an earlier explosion, the news agency says.

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In a statement on social media app Telegram, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts and said a “martyrdom brother” had detonated his explosive vest among a group of “apostates”.

In separate attacks, a reporter for the BBC’s Afghan service, Agmad Shah, was shot dead by an unknown gunman in the Khost region and 11 children died in a suicide bomb intended to target Nato troops in Kandahar province.

A huge suicide blast last week claimed the lives of 57 people who were queuing at a voter registration centre.

While huge death tolls from terrorist attacks have become commonplace in Afghanistan over the past decade and a half, the deliberate targeting of journalists is a relatively new tactic by IS and the Taliban.

At least 20 were killed last year, but it is believed Monday’s death toll was the worst for media workers in a single attack in the county.

The rapid succession of explosions “were a grim reminder of the strength of both the Taliban and Islamic State’s emerging Afghanistan branch to wreak violence despite increased US air attacks under Trump’s new policy for the 16-year-old war”, says Reuters.

According to research conducted by the BBC, the Taliban remains active in the country, only 30% of which is under full government control.

CNN says the increase in violence “comes despite reports around six weeks ago that suggested some factions of the Taliban had expressed interested in pursuing peace talks with the Afghan government”.

The Afghan government said in February it would be willing to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political party as part of a potential ceasefire agreement with the Islamist militant group.

The country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, said he is willing to engage in peace talks “without preconditions” and would offer a “comprehensive peace deal” to the Taliban, “so that it could not be rejected”.