WATCH: Swedish journalist’s murder raises questions about security in Afghanistan. Tom Clark reports from Kabul.
KABUL, Afghanistan – A journalist for Swedish radio was shot and killed by an unidentified gunman on Tuesday as he stood by a busy road in Kabul.
A spokesman for Kabul’s criminal investigation section told The Canadian Press that Nils Horner, 51, was shot in the back of the head while talking to a translator on a street that runs along the Afghan capital’s embassy district. The scene lies just up the way from the site of a deadly restaurant attack in January.
Horner, who was also a British citizen, was rushed from the scene, but succumbed before reaching the hospital, said Sayed Gul Agha Hashimi.
WATCH: Kabul police comment on the death of journalist Nils Horner
The journalist’s driver and translator are being questioned as part of the investigation.
The scene was still cordoned off Tuesday afternoon and the attack happened as the city was in high-security mode for the funeral of Afghanistan’s powerful Vice-President Mohammed Qasim Fahim.
Traffic was snarled throughout the city, with thousands lining the streets to pay their respects as Fahim’s flag-covered coffin was carried to the grave by ambulance.
Global News camera operator Barry Donnelly was on his way back from a shoot with Canadian military members, who dropped him off at the Canadian Embassy. Donnelly was picked up by private security hired by Global News to return him to his hotel, but got caught in traffic because of Fahim’s funeral.
“We tried three different routes to get to the hotel and couldn’t, so I said: ‘Just bring me back to the embassy.’”
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Because of the shooting, Donnelly and his security officer were stuck in another traffic jam on their way back to the embassy. He said he was told Horner was shot just around the corner from the Canadian Embassy.
“So I went back to the Canadian embassy and they locked us down for about 45 minutes. We got the all-clear that it was safe again to go outside. So when we left, we drove right by where the guy got shot. And we just saw police officers standing outside.”
Donnelly said he left the embassy when his private security confirmed the roads were clear and that it was safe. He said it would be hard to notice any disruption on the street related to the shooting because Kabul is “crazy…chaos all the time.”
A witness, who didn’t want to give his name, said two young men approached Horner just after he’d gotten out of a car and while he was in conversation with the translator.
He said the men’s appearance didn’t raise any alarm and it seemed they all knew each other. Then one of the men pulled out a gun with a silencer and shot Horner.
British news media reports say Horner had been on his way to meet a survivor of the January restaurant attack, in which Taliban militants killed 13 foreigners and eight Afghans.
Police say they are investigating whether the shooting was motivated by a personal issue or was an insurgent strike. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that his group was not responsible.
Fahim, who died on Sunday at 57, was an ethnic Tajik and a leading commander in the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban for years and helped the U.S. oust the Islamic militant movement.
His death came a month before elections to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who is barred from seeking a third term.
With files from CP reporter Murray Brewster
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