Afghan president condemns killing of journalist, translator

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the killing of a U.S. journalist and his Afghan translator in the country's southern Helmand province, the Presidential Palace said on Monday.

"President Ghani condemned killing of Afghan journalist Zabiullah Tamana and (U.S.) photographer David Gilkey in strongest terms possible," the palace said in a statement.

On Sunday, Gilkey of U.S. National Public Radio and his translator Tamana were embedded a convoy of Afghan national army. The army Hamvee vehicle they were aboard was struck by 82 mm caliber gun fired by militants in Marja district of Helmand.

"By indiscriminately targeting journalists the Taliban show their increased atrocity against harmless civilians. Tamana and Gilkey, who were on the front line to report about the truth, themselves became victims of Taliban brutality," the statement reads.

"History will remember the two journalists as fighters for freedom of information and expression. And those who committed the heinous crime will be remembered as forces of hatred," it said.

The president also offered condolences to the families of the victims.

Tamana, 38, served as photojournalist for Xinhua News Agency Kabul Bureau from 2003 to 2010.

Xinhua reporters, who worked with him, recalled his professionalism and personality, saying Tamana was a capable photojournalist and a very good colleague to work with.

Several journalists voluntarily gathered in front of Tamana's apartment in Kabul Monday morning to express sympathies and condolences to his family.

Helmand, notorious for poppy growing, is also a known Taliban stronghold.

Around 50 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan over the past one and half decade, six of them since 2015, according to Nai, an agency supporting media in Afghanistan. Endit