6 Americans killed in Afghan attacks, including diplomat

Five Americans were among the victims of a deadly suicide bombing attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Three soldiers and two civilians serving with the US-led military coalition were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives near a convoy carrying Zabul Governor Ashraf Nasar, the Wall Street Journal and BBC reported, citing US and Afghan officials.

One of the dead was a State Department diplomat, 25-year-old Anne Smedinghoff.

The convoy she was traveling in was headed to the south of the country to donate books to a school.

She is the first US diplomat killed since the attacks in Benghazi and the first US diplomat to die in Afghanistan.

An Afghan doctor was also killed in the attack, which left a child and two of the governor’s bodyguards wounded.

The WSJ said the Taliban was behind the attempted assasination. Zabul is located next to Kandahar, which is known as the "birthplace of the Taliban."

A separate attack in eastern Afghanistan killed an American civilian.

Secretary of State John Kerry paid homage to the dead diplomat in Istanbul Sunday, saying: “We know too well the risks in the world today for all of our State Department personnel at home and around the world."

More from GlobalPost: Afghan courthouse attack kills 50 people