Swedish journalist shot dead in central Kabul

KABUL: A gunmen shot dead a Swedish journalist outside a restaurant in one of the Afghan capital's most heavily secured districts on Tuesday morning, police and a witness said.

"All we know is that he died in the Emergency Hospital after being shot earlier," said Hashmatullah Stanekzai, chief spokesman for Kabul police chief.

The journalist was stood outside a Lebanese restaurant with his driver and translator for a few minutes when two men in Western clothes approached and one shot him at point blank range in the back of the head, said Zubir, a guard at the restaurant who uses only one name. The guard and a nearby shopkeeper said one shot was fired.

Two suspects had been arrested, said police chief Colonel Najibullah Samsour.

The attack took place barely a minutes-walk from the site of another Lebanese restaurant, where Taliban fighters killed eight Afghans and 13 foreigners in January.