Journalist killed while covering clash between Afghan forces and Taliban, Reuters.

Spin Boldak, Afghanistan,

Journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said, Reuter’s reported.

According to Reuter’s, Afghan Special Forces had been fighting to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak when Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire, the official told Reuters.

Siddiqui had been embedded as a journalist since earlier this week with Afghan Special Forces based in the southern province of Kandahar and had been reporting on fighting between Afghan commandos and Taliban fighters.

“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 published on Reuters web site.

“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.”

Danish Siddiqui covered war zones and crises from Iraq to Hong Kong to Nepal. He was killed on Friday covering Afghan-Taliban clashes near the Pakistan border. Here is some of the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer's best work from the past decade: https://t.co/HnoHFKTyFS pic.twitter.com/Asz4vVFMnh

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) July 16, 2021

Siddiqui told Reuters he had been wounded in the arm by shrapnel earlier on Friday 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 said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the details of the renewed fighting described by the Afghan military official, who asked not to be identified before Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry made a statement.

Siddiqui was part of the Reuters photography team to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Since 2010, Siddiqui’s works was covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya refugee’s crisis, the Hong Kong protests and Nepal earthquakes.

Taliban fighters had captured the border area on Wednesday, the second-largest crossing on the border with Pakistan and one of the most important objectives they have achieved during a rapid advance across the country as U.S. forces pull out Reuters publicized on its Web Site.