The editor of a local radio station was killed by unknown assailants in Afghanistan on the first day of 2021 amid a string of targeted assassinations, an official confirmed on Friday.

Bismillah Aadil, editor of the local Sadai Ghor radio was shot dead in Feroz Koh city, police spokesman Nek Mohammad told Anadolu Agency. He added the unknown attackers riding motorcycles fled the area and an investigation into the killing has begun.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center, an independent press freedom organization, in the past 20 years at least 119 Afghan journalists and foreign news correspondents lost their lives in the country.

In the two months alone, at least six journalists lost their lives in the line of duty in Afghanistan.

With no claim of responsibility for this continued spate of killing, Afghan officials point fingers to the Taliban insurgents for these assaults. However, the Taliban have previously denied any involvement in such attacks.

Amid these attacks, the fragile peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, remain paused for at least one more week.

The talks, scheduled to resume this month are aimed at ending the nearly two-decade-long conflict following a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban inked earlier in February that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan./aa