Fellow officers say the Afghan police commander who killed an Associated Press photographer and wounded an AP reporter seemed a calm, pious man who may have come under the influence of Islamic extremists calling for vengeance against foreigners over drone strikes.
But the Afghan Interior Ministry overseeing the investigation told the AP it won't speculate about a motive so early in its probe into the man who killed AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus and seriously wounded senior correspondent Kathy Gannon. The gunman surrendered immediately after the attack Friday in front of dozens of security forces and election workers on a heavily guarded government compound in eastern Afghanistan.
The suspect, identified as a unit commander named Naqibullah, was transferred to the capital, Kabul, yesterday, and central government authorities have now started to question him.