Two foreign journalists shot in Afghanistan

A man dressed as a policeman shot two foreign journalists in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing one and critically wounding the other, police, a doctor and a local official said.

The two were in a remote small town on Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan when the incident took place.

According to the German press agency DPA, they were two AP journalists: Anja Niedringhaus, a German photojournalist and Kathy Gannon, a Canadian journalist.

Anja Niedringhaus has been killed and Kathy Gannon is in a stable condition after being shot in the hand.

AP has confirmed the information.

Having lunch with my friend Nancy Dupree in Kabul taken by my friend NiedringhausAP Nancy and her work is inspiring pic.twitter.com/x6rwIoPDZm— Kathy Gannon (Kathygannon) 1 Avril 2014

A spokesman for the governor of Khost province suggested that the assailant was actually a policeman.

The attack took place on the eve of a presidential election that Taliban insurgents have pledged to disrupt through a campaign of bombings and assassinations.

“Naqibullah, a policeman in Tani district of Khost, opened fire on two foreign journalists.” Mobariz Zadran told Reuters.

Last month, a prominent Afghan journalist with the Agence France-Presse news agency was killed alongside eight other people when Taliban gunmen opened fire inside a heavily fortified luxury hotel in the centre of the capital, Kabul.

Reuters / DPA