Ontario-born journalist in stable condition after attack in Afghanistan
Posted April 6, 2014 7:06 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Canadian Associated Press correspondent shot and wounded while covering preparations for elections in Afghanistan was in stable condition Saturday and receiving medical treatment at a military hospital in Kabul.
Kathy Gannon, 60, a senior correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan, suffered three gunshot wounds in the attack Friday that killed AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus in the eastern city of Khost. Gannon was expected to be transferred to a hospital out of the country in coming days.
Niedringhaus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, died instantly of her wounds. She was repatriated to her native Germany on Saturday. A funeral announcement was pending.
An Afghan police commander opened fire on the two in their car with a Kalashnikov assault rifle after shouting “Allahu Akbar” — or God is Great, witnesses said. The officer then surrendered to other police officers on hand to guard a convoy of election workers delivering ballots.
The shooting took place on the eve of the presidential election, a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s troubled history. In what promises to be the nation’s first democratic transfer of power, people in large numbers on Saturday defied threats of violence to vote for a successor to President Hamid Karzai.
Gannon, who was born in Timmins, Ont., has been covering unrest in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the AP for nearly three decades, She received injuries to the shoulder and wrist in Friday’s attack. She often worked with Niedringhaus, who was 48.
