Two female journalists working for the Associated Press (AP) have been shot by a police officer in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.
Anja Niedringhaus, 48, died in the attack in the town of Khost, but her colleague, Kathy Gannon, 60, is reported to be in a stable condition. Niedringhaus was an acclaimed German photojournalist, and Gannon is the AP’s bureau chief in Afghanistan.
The pair had been travelling with election workers, as the country prepares to elect the successor to President Hamid Karsai, who has been in power since the fall of the Taliban after the US-led invasion in 2001.
AP reports that the reporters were in a car, when an Afghan police unit commander named Naqibullah called out “Allah Akbar” and shot them on the backseat with his AK-47. The man then surrendered to police and was arrested.
In a memo to staff, AP President Gary Pruitt described Niedringhaus as “spirited, intrepid and fearless, with a raucous laugh that we will always remember”.
