TEHRAN, April 30 - At least 25 people were killed, including Agence France-Presse chief photographer for Afghanistan Shah Marai and eight other journalists, when two suicide blasts ripped through Kabul on Monday, AFP reported.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) – The attacks, claimed by Daesh terrorist group, are the deadliest to have targeted the media in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, according to Reporters Without Borders.
They spurred an outpouring of grief among journalists, many of whom took to Twitter to post tributes to colleagues and friends.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said the second explosion came minutes after the first, and targeted reporters at the scene.
"The bomber disguised himself as a journalist and detonated himself among the crowd," he said.
The interior ministry confirmed the death toll and said 49 people had been wounded.
There were fears the death toll could rise.
In a separate attack, 11 children were killed and 16 people wounded, including foreign and Afghan security force members, when a suicide attacker exploded his bomb-laden car near a convoy in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.
In a statement Reporters Without Borders said nine journalists were killed in Kabul -- Marai, along with colleagues from Radio Free Europe and Afghan broadcasters Tolo News and 1TV, among others.
Marai joined AFP as a driver in 1996, the year the Taliban seized power, and began taking pictures on the side, covering stories including the US invasion in 2001, AFP reported.
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