KABUL, Afghanistan — A 12-year-old boy hailed as a hero for defending his village from the Taliban was shot dead in what appeared to be a targeted assassination by the group, Afghan officials said Wednesday.
Wasil Ahmad was feted at a public ceremony for playing a key role in defending the community of Dan Sango, in the southern province of Khas Uruzgan, during a 2-month-long Taliban siege last year.
Wasil Ahmad, 12, poses in an undated photo Bashir Ahmad
Pictures of him wearing full military uniform were circulated on social media after the siege was broken by Afghan Special Forces in August 2015.
Since then, the boy carried a pistol to school — but did not have the chance to use it Monday when a gunman shot him twice in the head and chest as he bought groceries from a local shop in the provincial capital of Terin Kot.
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Wasil was airlifted to Kandahar where he was pronounced dead, according to provincial police chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Roghlewanai who said the shooting appeared to be targeted.
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