Western journalists attacked in Afghanistan

Photographer killed, another wounded; attackers wore police uniform; shootings follow wave of Taliban attacks intended to disrupt elections.

Taliban militants with weapons 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Parwiz)
Taliban militants with weapons 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Parwiz)

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed in Afghanistan and AP reporter Kathy Gannon was wounded when a gun man opened fire on them on Friday.

The gunman was dressed as 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.

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

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

"Naqibullah, a policeman in Tani district of Khost, opened fire on two foreign journalists. One was killed and one was wounded," Mobariz Zadran told Reuters.

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