A Foreign Service Officer killed in a suicide bomb attack in Zabul, Afghanistan

Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old Foreign Service Officer, was killed in a car bomb blast in Qalat, Zabul on Saturday (April 6, 2013). She is the first U.S. diplomat to die on the job since last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens. According to Davis, Anne Smedinghoff is among five Americans killed in the suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan. The other victims included three U.S. troops and a civilian working for the Defense Department. Four State Department officials were among the 10 injured in the attack. Anne Smedinghoff joined the Foreign Service after graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2009 with a degree in international studies. She then volunteered to serve in Afghanistan and arrived last July. Anne Smedinghoff was described as a positive, hard-working and dependable young woman.