14 DAY TRIAL // A 25-year-old diplomat has lost her life in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan, reports say.
Foreign Service Officer Anne Smedinghoff died while participating in a book donation at a local school. She had been in Afghanistan for less than a year, since last July.
10 people have been injured in the suicide attack in Qalat, Zabul on Friday, April 5. Four other American citizens lost their lives, ABC News reports.
Three army men and one Defense Department staffer have also been killed. One State Department official has incurred critical wounds, and three others are seriously injured.
The meeting had been made public by officials on the day prior to the attack. The officials died in a car bombing, followed by the arrival of two rebel troops wearing vests packed with explosives.
“The world lost a truly beautiful soul. [...] Anne absolutely loved the work she was doing.
“We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world.
“She was such a wonderful woman - strong, intelligent, independent, and loving,” parents Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff have expressed in a statement to the press.
A press officer for the U.S. embassy, Smedinghoff was covering a book donation by the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team to the boys institution.
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks of the diplomat's death during an Istanbul speech, mentioning meeting her in Afghanistan.
“There are no words for anybody to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction of a young 25-year-old woman with all of the future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy, of changing people's lives, of making a difference, having an impact, who was taking knowledge in books to deliver them to a school.
“I remember her as vivacious, smart, capable, often chosen by the ambassador for her capabilities,” he says.