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Journalist shot dead in Afghanistan Journalist shot dead in Afghanistan
(35 minutes later)
A foreign national, thought to be a journalist, has been shot in the head and killed in central Kabul. Gunmen have shot dead a British-Swedish journalist in the embassy quarter of Kabul in an unusual attack using a pistol with a silencer.
The attack came in a district close to a Lebanese restaurant in the Afghan capital where 21 people, including 13 foreigners, were killed in January. Police said the man, who had been in the country only a few days, had been killed when travelling from his hotel to the ruins of a restaurant bombed by the Taliban in January. He had been planning to meet a survivor there for a report.
"I heard a single gunshot and saw the man fall down," said a witness. A doctor at Kabul's emergency hospital said the victim was dead on arrival. A senior source at the city's criminal investigation department said: "He was on his way to the Lebanese restaurant to interview the cook when he was shot. He was taken to hospital but died there from his injuries." The gunmen had fled the scene but two suspects had been arrested.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came ahead of presidential elections in Afghanistan on 5 April and the withdrawal of Nato combat troops by the end of this year after 13 years of fighting the Taliban. "The weapon used was a pistol with silencer," the source added. The translator working with the reporter had also been detained for questioning.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for January's restaurant attack in Kabul. The journalist had got out of a Toyota Corolla car and was walking down the street, when he was shot, said an eyewitness, Zubair Atta Mohammad. "He was shot in the head and the road was covered with blood," Mohammad said, adding that he had not seen the attackers.
Foreigners have been targeted before at guesthouses, luxury hotels and embassies in the city, but attacking a civilian social venue appeared to signal a new and ruthless stage of the Taliban insurgency. The British and Swedish embassies said they were investigating reports that one of their nationals had been targeted.
Among the dead in that attack were three Americans, two British citizens, two Canadians, the International Monetary Fund head of mission, and the Lebanese owner of the Taverna du Liban, which was a popular social venue for expatriates. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the group was not immediately claiming responsibility for the shooting but added that he would speak to insurgent groups on the ground.
It was the deadliest attack on foreign civilians since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. One attacker detonated his suicide vest at the fortified entrance to the restaurant before two other militants stormed inside and gunned down diners and staff. The attack happened as Kabul prepared to bury the Afghan vice-president, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who died from heart problems at the weekend. The city's security forces were focused on that event.
Although the city endures regular bombings on government, diplomatic and military buildings, causing dozens of civilian casualties, and although there are regular assassination attempts on prominent politicians, it is unprecedented for a civilian to be targeted in broad daylight at the fringes of the heavily fortified diplomatic district.
The area is normally full of police and private security guards keeping watch over the mansions of the rich and powerful, and many roads are blocked off by boom gates.
• Mokhtar Amiri contributed to this report