KHOST (Afghanistan): An Afghan police commander on Friday shot dead a female German photographer working for the Associated Press on the eve of presidential elections, in an attack that left a Canadian colleague wounded, the news agency said.

The journalists were shot in their car in the Tanai district of Khost province as they reported on distribution of ballot papers for the election to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai.

Anja Niedringhaus is the third journalist working for international media to be killed in Afghanistan during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner and Sardar Ahmad of Agence France-Presse.

“Anja Niedringhaus, 48, an internationally acclaimed German photographer, was killed instantly,” AP said.

“Kathy Gannon, the reporter, was wounded twice and is receiving medical attention. She was described as being in stable condition and talking to medical personnel.” Kathy Gannon is associated with AP for well over two decades. She lives in Islamabad, where she is known by vast circles of journalists, politicians and friends. The prize winning journalist had been reporting from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia for many years, and is also author of a book on Afghanistan ‘I for Infidel’

AP said the police commander opened fire while the two journalists were in their car, travelling with election workers delivering ballots in Khost city. “As they were sitting in the car waiting for the convoy to move, a unit commander named Naqibullah walked up to the car, yelled `Allahu Akbar’ and opened fire on them,” the news agency said.

“He then surrendered to the other police and was arrested.” Khost provincial governor Abdul Jabbar Naeemi and other officials confirmed that the attacker was a police commander who was detained immediately after the incident.

“Anja and Kathy together have spent years in Afghanistan covering the conflict and the people there,” said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll in the AP report.

“Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss.” President Hamid Karzai issued a statement expressing his condolences, and ordered an investigation.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham condemned “the senseless act of violence” that took Niedringhaus’s life.

SERIES OF ATTACKS: Kabul has been rocked by its own string of attacks in the run-up to Saturday’s election.

Ahmad, AFP’s senior Afghan reporter, was killed along with his wife and two of his three children on March 20 when gunmen smuggled pistols into Kabul’s high-security Serena hotel and shot dead nine people including four foreigners.

Horner, 51, a veteran of Swedish national radio, was shot dead in March in a Kabul street while researching a story about a January attack on a nearby restaurant which killed 21 people, including 13 foreigners.