08 April 2013
OTTAWA – Canada’s Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) expresses its condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of US diplomat Anne Smedinghoff and of the three US service members and one US Department of Defense civilian killed in the line of duty on April 6 by a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan.
A public diplomacy officer at the US Embassy in Kabul, Ms. Smedinghoff and her convoy were attacked while delivering books to a local school.
“This senseless killing of a promising and dedicated young Foreign Service officer underscores the daily dangers which many diplomats face while serving their countries abroad in crisis and conflict zones,” said PAFSO President Tim Edwards. “Our thoughts today are with Ms. Smedinghoff’s loved ones, as well as with our friends and colleagues in the American foreign service. This tragic loss is felt deeply by the greater foreign service community.”
Ms. Smedinghoff graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2009 with a degree in international relations, and joined the US Foreign Service soon afterward. After a tour of duty in Caracas, Venezuela, she took a posting in Kabul where she had been serving since July 2012.
“Ms. Smedinghoff understood that countries can not exert influence or defend their interests from behind closed doors. A diplomat must get out from behind the safe confines of an embassy’s walls and engage with people face to face,” said Mr. Edwards. “Canada’s diplomats today salute her passion, her courage, and her dedication to building a brighter future for the country where she served.”
Anne Smedinghoff is the first US diplomat killed in the line of duty since Ambassador Chris Stevens and Foreign Service Information Management Specialist Sean Smith perished in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.