The Reuters news agency says its journalist Danish Siddiqui has been killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan.
Siddiqui, 38, and a senior Afghan officer were killed on July 16 in what an Afghan commander called Taliban cross fire during a battle to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak.
Siddiqui, an Indian national, had been embedded as a journalist with Afghan forces since earlier this week in the southern province of Kandahar.
"We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region," Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement.
"Danish was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.”
The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply saddened" by Siddiqui's death and hailed his work.
Reuters said Siddiqui had been wounded in the arm by shrapnel earlier on July 16 while reporting on the clash. He was treated and had been recovering when Taliban fighters retreated from the fighting in Spin Boldak.
Siddiqui had been talking to shopkeepers when the Taliban attacked again, the Afghan commander told Reuters, which said it was unable to independently verify the details of the incident.
Indian authorities said that the Taliban had turned over Siddiqui’s body to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Siddiqui was part of the Reuters photography team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis.
A Reuters photographer since 2010, Siddiqui's work spanned covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya refugees crisis, the Hong Kong protests, and Nepal earthquakes.
According to a United Nations report, 33 journalists were killed in Afghanistan between 2018 and 2021.
