Taliban killed Afghanistan govt's top media officer

The Taliban shot dead the head of the Afghan government's media information centre Friday at a mosque in Kabul. An official in the federal interior ministry told Reuters that Dawa Khan Minapal was killed during prayers. Minapal, who was the head of Government Media and Information Centre (GMIC), had also served as a spokesperson in Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani's outreach team. "Unfortunately, the savage terrorists have committed a cowardly act once again and martyred a patriotic Afghan," interior ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said of the death of Dawa Khan Menapal.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the death, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid sending a message to media saying "he was killed in a special attack carried out by mujahideen". Fighting in Afghanistan's long-running conflict has intensified since May, when foreign forces began the final stage of a withdrawal due to be completed later this month. On Tuesday, the district governor of Sayed Abad district in Maidan Wardak province was also assassinated in Kabul by Taliban.

Scores of social activists, journalists, bureaucrats, judges and public figures who were fighting to sustain a liberal Islamic regime have been killed by Taliban in a bid to silence voices of dissent in the war-torn country. U.S. Charge d'Affaires Ross Wilson said he was saddened and disgusted by the killing of Menapal, who he called a friend and colleague whose career was focused on providing truthful information to all Afghans. These murders are an affront to Afghans’ human rights & freedom of speech, he said.