Blast kills 7 Afghan forces, Karzai condemns killing of journalist

Mar 11, 2009, 14:56 GMT

Kabul - A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed seven Afghan security forces Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of an Afghan journalist, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in southern region.

Seven Afghan security forces were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled roadside bomb in Lakan area of south- eastern province of Khost on Wednesday morning, General Najeeb Nuhzad, an army commander in the province said.

Following the blast, four wounded attackers were detained by the combined Afghan and US-led coalition forces after they were targeted by a coalition's airstrike, said Nuhzad, who is the director for a Provincial Coordination Committee, an entity that coordinates Afghan and foreign military operations in the province.

He said the dead security forces were part of a unit which assisted the international troops in the province in their military operations.

Meanwhile, Karzai condemned Wednesday the death of an Afghan journalist, Jawid Ahmad Kakar, who was shot dead in southern city of Kandahar by two unknown assailants on Tuesday.

Kakar, who worked with Press TV, an Iranian TV channel, in southern Kandahar province, was killed by two attackers riding on motorbike as he stepped out of his car near his house in the provincial capital, a provincial spokesman said.

It was 'inhumane and barbaric' attack, Karzai said in a statement issued by his office, adding, 'The enemies of Afghanistan can not hamper the process of democracy and freedom of media in the country by killing the reporters.

'We call on the Afghan government to launch an immediate investigation so that the killers can be quickly identified and brought to trial,' the organizatoin for Reporters Without Borders said a statement.

Kakar had worked for several Canadian media outlets in Kandahar province before was arrested by US military forces in country on charges of having contacted Taliban leaders and possessing their phone numbers.

'How can you work as a reporter in southern Afghanistan without contacting the Taliban?' he told Reporters Without Borders after he was released, adding, 'It is normal and it is my right.'

He was released late last year after spending 11 months in US detention centre in Bagram airfield and had planned to write a book about his ordeal in the detention centre, the statement said.

Prior to his imprisonment, Kakar worked for years with US Special Forces in country, following the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.

It was not immediately known that who was behind his killing, but Zalmay Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar blamed 'enemies of peace and stability' for the attack, a term often used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban insurgents.