Taliban kills head of Afghanistan gov’t’s media department

By GNNLiberia On Aug 6, 2021 35

Source: Aljazeera News

Smoke rises from the city of Lashkar Gah after air strikes against the Taliban in Helmand province, Afghanistan [Abdul Khaliq/AP]

Taliban assassinates top media officer in Kabul as clashes between the group and government forces intensify.

Taliban fighters have assassinated the Afghanistan government’s top media and information officer in capital city of Kabul, the group’s spokesman and Afghan officials say.

The killing on Friday came days after Taliban warned it would target senior administration officials in retaliation for increased air strikes.

Dawa Khan Minapal, who was the head of Government Media and Information Centre, had been killed, an official in the federal interior ministry confirmed.

“Unfortunately, the savage terrorists have committed a cowardly act once again and martyred a patriotic Afghan,” interior ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said.

Minapal had also served as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman.

“He was well known to Afghan journalists, a member of the inner circle of President Ghani and our understanding is that he left home to go for Friday prayers and was killed,” said Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Kabul.