Journalist killed in Kabul bomb blast targeting TV workers

An Afghan security forces member inspects a bus carrying local TV station employees that hit a roadside bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 30, 2020. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

• Pictures shared on social media showed a white minibus with extensive damage to its front
• It was the second such attack targeting employees of the channel in less than a year

KABUL: A roadside bomb killed a journalist and driver after struck a minivan carrying employees of a private Afghan television channel in Kabul on Saturday, killing a journalist and the driver, the network’s news director and officials said.
The pair died when the bus carrying 15 employees from Khurshid TV was struck, the channel’s news director Jawed Farhad told AFP.
The interior ministry also confirmed the attack, saying the minivan had been targeted.
“The target of the blast was the vehicle of Khurshid private TV,” a ministry statement said.
Pictures shared on social media showed a white minibus with extensive damage to its front.
It was the second such attack targeting employees of the channel in less than a year.
In August 2019, two passers-by were killed when a “sticky bomb” — a type of homemade explosive attached to vehicles with magnets — struck a similar Khurshid TV van.
No group claimed responsibility for that attack, which wounded three employees, and no one immediately claimed Saturday’s attack.
Afghanistan is one of the world’s deadliest places for journalists, who face many risks covering the country’s long conflict and who have sometimes been targeted for doing their job.
The latest attack comes during an overall drop in violence across much of Afghanistan since the Taliban offered a surprise three-day cease-fire on May 24.
While the truce ended on Tuesday night, violence has largely remained low, though Afghan security forces have suffered some attacks that authorities blamed on the Taliban.