At least 36 killed in Afghanistan in series of suicide attacks targeting NATO, journalists

Twin suicide explosions killed at least 25 people and seriously wounded 49 others in Kabul on Monday morning, and a few hours later, 11 children were killed in a suicide blast in Kandahar. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the first two suicide bombings, the first one outside the National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence service and the second one from an assailant pretending to be a journalist and mingling with the reporters who rushed to cover the first explosion.

"We know that a suicide bomber pretended to be a reporter," interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told Reuters. "He showed his press card and stood among journalists before blowing himself up." Eight of those killed and five of the wounded were journalists, including the chief Afghanistan photographer for Agence France-Presse, Shah Marai. The other seven worked for Afghan radio and TV stations.

In Kandahar, a suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy of foreign military forces but killed 11 children from a nearby religious school, or madrasa, who had gathered around the convoy. That attack, still unclaimed, also wounded five NATO soldiers, nine civilians, and two policemen, The Associated Press reports. Afghanistan has been hit by a series of deadly bombings this year, including an attack that killed 60 people, including 22 women and eight children, last week outside a voter registration center in Kabul.

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