Twin suicide bombings kill 25, including 9 reporters

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN >> Two Islamic State suicide bombers struck in Afghanistan’s capital Monday, killing 25 people, including nine journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack, in the deadliest assault on reporters since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

An Agence France-Presse photographer and a cameraman for the local Tolo TV station were among the fatalities, police said. Two reporters for the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe and a third who was to begin working there soon also were killed, Radio Free Europe said. At least 45 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai, who said four police were among those killed.

The attack was the latest in a relentless string of large-scale bombings and assaults in the capital and elsewhere in Afghanistan this year.

A few hours later, in the southern Kandahar province, a suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy killed 11 children from a nearby religious school, police said. The children had gathered around the NATO convoy for fun when the bomber struck, said Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a lawmaker from Kandahar. Eight Romanian NATO soldiers were wounded.

The Islamic State group claimed the Kabul bombings in a statement posted online, saying it targeted the Afghan intelligence headquarters. The statement did not say anything about specifically targeting journalists. The blasts took place in the central Shash Darak area, home to NATO headquarters and several embassies and foreign offices, as well as the Afghan intelligence service.

Stanekzai said the first suicide bomber was on a motorbike, while the second targeted those scrambling to the scene to aid victims.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Security forces run from the site of a suicide attack after a second bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. The two attacks killed 25 people and injured at least 45.