Diplomat killed in Afghanistan 'was the rock of our team'

Risks come with serving as a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, but Anne Smedinghoff hardly dwelled on them and took all the precautions while in the field, her colleagues said Monday.
"I think for Anne, (the risks are) what she saw as part of the job," said John Rhatigan, a deputy information officer who worked with Smedinghoff, who was killed Saturday in Afghanistan in a roadside attack. "She believed in the work she was doing … I think she wanted to be out there with the Afghan people as much as possible."
Still shaken by Smedinghoff's death, colleagues who knew her well described her as eager, kind and hard-working. Smedinghoff poured her heart into projects that built relationships between the Afghan public and Americans, they said.
"Anne was the rock of our team," said Solmaz Sharifi, an assistant information officer who met Smedinghoff while they were training together before their assignment in Kabul. "She was also exceptionally good at brightening up our day after an especially long day."
The young diplomat, from River Forest, and four other Americans were killed while delivering donated  textbooks to children at a new school. She and the other victims were traveling in a convoy when a bomb set off by the Taliban exploded, according to the State Department.
As an assistant press information officer, Smedinghoff spent most of her time working on public engagement and public diplomacy initiatives between the United States and Afghanistan. Often, she reached out to both the international and Afghan press with stories that showed locals a different side of America that they may not have known.

Last year during Eid, a Muslim holiday that celebrates giving and sharing, Smedinghoff appeared on one of the most-watched Afghanistan TV stations to talk about the similarities between that special day and Thanksgiving. Both give thanks for life’s blessings, and Smedinghoff discussed how she and her family celebrated back at home, said Sharifi, 30.
"That's something that's never been done before. You never have an American on (Afghan) TV building those bridges ... and showing that Americans and Afghans aren't that different," said Sharifi.
She also worked on a campaign to end gender violence by producing and distributing videos to the press across the country. Soon afterward, Smedinghoff and her colleagues saw photos of men in markets wearing purple ribbons, a symbol of the campaign, said Rhatigan, 39.
Inside the U.S Embassy in Kabul, Smedinghoff's desk is covered with photos of Chicago and her family, as well as a box of registration forms for a marathon this month in Kabul that she was helping to organize.  She also played on the American embassy's women's soccer team.
Since her death, colleagues said they've heard from residents and members of the local government who were touched by Smedinghoff.
"The whole office would light up when she came in," Rhatigan said. "The days she wasn’t there and was out in the field, you really felt her absence."