Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was killed Saturday, April 6, 2013, in southern Afghanistan, the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Tom Smedinghoff) (Uncredited/AP) 
 
 Three American civilians and three U.S. troops were killed in two attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, including a powerful blast that struck officials traveling to a school to donate books. Among the dead was the first State Department diplomat to be killed in the country since the war began. 
 
 The bloodshed Saturday, the deadliest day this year for Americans in Afghanistan, underscored how dangerous the country remains as the United States proceeds with the withdrawal of its remaining troops over the next 20 months, leaving security in the hands of Afghanistan’s fledgling army. 
 
 The attacks suggested that even as the military coalition’s focus shifts to managing the drawdown, the United States appears likely to face an intense “fighting season,” the springtime period in Afghanistan during which violence typically in­creases. 
 
 The American diplomat killed Saturday was identified as Anne Smedinghoff by her parents. Smedinghoff was recently tasked with assisting Secretary of State John F. Kerry on his trip to Kabul. 
 
 Four other State Department officials who were with her, traveling to a school in the southern province of Zabul, were injured in the same bombing, one critically, Kerry said in a statement. 
 
 “She was everything a Foreign Service Officer should be: smart, capable, eager to serve, and deeply committed to our country and the difference she was making for the Afghan people,” Kerry said. “She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future.” 
 
 In a somber address to State Department employees in Istanbul, Kerry paid tribute to Smedinghoff. 
 
 There is no greater contradiction, Kerry said, between Smedinghoff's zeal to "change the world" and help others and a bomber who he said drove a car into their vehicle. 
 
 "Folks who want to kill people, and that's all they want to do, are scared of knowledge. They want to shut the doors," Kerry said. 
 
 "Here is a huge challenge for us. Here's a confrontation with modernity, with possibilities, with everything that our country stands for." 
 
 Smedinghoff, 25, served as Kerry’s main embassy guide and aide during his two-day visit late last month. That assignment, as a “control officer,” is considered an honor and a mark of promise for young Foreign Service officers. 
 
 The diplomat began an assignment as a press officer in Kabul last summer after spending two years at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, where she worked in the consular section. Smedinghoff graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in international relations, said her parents, Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff. 
 
 The Smedinghoffs, who live in the Chicago area, said in an e-mail that their daughter joined the State Department straight out of college. 
 
 “She particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war,” they said. “We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world.” 
 
 The attacks came as Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Afghanistan to take stock of the war as U.S. officials continue to deliberate how quickly they should pull out the 68,000 American troops still deployed there. 
 
 Saturday’s violence followed a coordinated attack Wednesday in the country’s relatively safe west that killed at least 46 people. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault in Farah province, saying it had been carried out to avenge the group’s fighters who have been “kept in prisons for years on end and even mercilessly given the death penalty.” 
 
 In the deadlier of the two attacks Saturday, in Zabul province’s Qalat district, insurgents detonated a bomb when a convoy transporting U.S. troops and State Department officials and another one carrying the governor of the province intersected. The blast, in an area that has long been a Taliban stronghold, killed three U.S. service members, the young diplomat and a U.S. Defense Department employee. 
 
 The Associated Press reported that the governor survived the attack but that an Afghan doctor was killed in the explosion. 
 
 In a statement, the Taliban said the attack was carried out at noon when a militant detonated explosives packed in a vehicle as the provincial governor was approaching the Americans. A Taliban spokesman told the AP that militants linked to the group were hoping to strike a U.S. or an Afghan government convoy when they placed the bomb. “We were waiting for one of them,” spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said. “It was our good luck that both appeared at the same time.” 
 
 In the east, meanwhile, a third American civilian was killed in an “insurgent attack,” according to a statement issued by the military coalition in Kabul. It offered no further details. 
 
 Dempsey, the country’s top U.S. military official, told reporters traveling with him that he was heartened by what U.S. officials have described as spontaneous rebellions against the Taliban that have unfolded in recent months as the U.S. presence in the country has thinned. He expressed hope that a political solution will lead at least some segments of the Taliban to join the political process, according to remarks published by the American Forces Press Service, a Pentagon news division. 
 
 “Any conflict in history, when it is resolved, is resolved through some form of reconciliation,” Dempsey said. “I support the effort to try . . . through the Afghans to encourage them to take reconciliation as an important line of effort.” 
 
 Kerry, who traveled Saturday to the Middle East, spoke to the woman’s parents to offer “what little comfort I can for their immeasurable loss.” 
 
 “As the father of two daughters, I can’t imagine what their family is feeling today,” he said. 
 
 Tom Smedinghoff said his daughter died in the pursuit of a career she loved. 
 
 “The world lost a truly beautiful soul today,” he said. “She was such a wonderful woman--strong, intelligent, independent, and loving.” 
 
 Anne Gearan contributed to this report. ||||| A young U.S. diplomat killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan was an up-and-comer in the State Department and loved working directly with residents of the country, those who knew her said Sunday. 
 
 Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer, died Saturday when the group she was traveling with was struck by an explosion in southern Zabul province. They were traveling to donate textbooks to students. An employee with the U.S. State Department and three U.S. soldiers were also killed in the attack. 
 
 The Chicago-area woman is the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya. 
 
 Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday at a news conference in Turkey that Smedinghoff was "vivacious, smart" and "capable." Smedinghoff had assisted Kerry during a visit to Afghanistan two weeks ago. 
 
 Kerry also described Smedinghoff as "a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to school children, to bring them knowledge." 
 
 Anne Smedinghoff's parents said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post that their daughter joined the foreign service straight out of college. 
 
 Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff also said their daughter died doing what she loved. 
 
 "Working as a public diplomacy officer, she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war," they said. 
 
 Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela. ||||| Story highlights Anne Smedinghoff "was doing what she loved," her parents say 
 
 The 25-year-old is believed to be the first U.S. diplomat killed since Benghazi 
 
 Two civilians and 3 U.S. service members were killed delivering books to a school 
 
 At least 11 children killed in an Afghan/NATO operation Saturday, officials say 
 
 The death toll has surged from weekend violence in Afghanistan, with six Americans and more than a dozen Afghan civilians reportedly among the casualties. 
 
 Five Americans -- including a U.S. diplomat , a civilian from the Defense Department and three U.S. service members -- were killed while delivering books to an Afghan school, when a suicide bomber struck their convoy in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province Saturday. Another U.S. service member was killed in a separate attack Saturday. 
 
 The diplomat's death was a grim reminder of the risks and importance of pushing for change in "one of the toughest places on earth," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. 
 
 Anne Smedinghoff, 25, is believed to be the first U.S. diplomat killed since a September attack in Benghazi, Libya. 
 
 "I think there are no words for anybody to describe the extraordinarily harsh contradiction of a young 25-year-old woman with all of the future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy, of changing people's lives, of making a difference, having an impact, who was taking knowledge in books to deliver them to a school," Kerry said. 
 
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 In separate clashes in Kunar province on Saturday, local officials said, at least 11 children were killed in a NATO operation aimed at Taliban targets. NATO officials said they were investigating reports of civilian casualties. 
 
 Family: Diplomat "was doing what she loved" 
 
 Kerry was emotional Sunday as he spoke to U.S. diplomats stationed in Istanbul about Smedinghoff's death. 
 
 Smedinghoff was "vivacious, smart, capable, chosen often by the ambassador there to be the lead person because of her capabilities," Kerry said. 
 
 The attack killed Afghan civilians and wounded four more State Department personnel. One of them was in critical condition in a hospital in Kandahar, Kerry told reporters Sunday. 
 
 "I wish everyone in our country could see first-hand the devotion, loyalty and amazingly hard and hazardous work our diplomats do on the front lines in the world's most dangerous places," Kerry said in a statement Saturday. "Every day, we honor their courage and are grateful for their sacrifices, and today we do so with great sadness." 
 
 Smedinghoff volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and had been working there since July, her parents said in a statement. 
 
 "She particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war," Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff said. "We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world." 
 
 Afghan children killed 
 
 At least 11 Afghan children were killed Saturday in a joint military operation by Afghan and NATO forces, local officials said. 
 
 Mohammed Zaher Sapai, governor of the Shigal district, said 11 children were among 18 people killed in the operation. 
 
 NATO's International Security Assistance Force is investigating, spokesman John Manley said. 
 
 "We take these reports of civilian injuries very seriously," he said. 
 
 U.S. military brass visits 
 
 The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, is in Afghanistan for meetings with coalition and Afghan leaders. 
 
 Dempsey will be briefed on the ongoing military transition, where Afghan security forces are taking greater control of their country. 
 
 He will meet with Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, who took command of ISAF about two months ago. 
 
 "One of the things I'm going to ask (Dunford) is ... what have you learned," Dempsey told the American Forces Press Service. 
 
 "If he tells me 'Nothing,' I'm going to say, 'Maybe we got the wrong guy.'" 
 
 Dempsey spokesman Col. David Lapan later told CNN that the chairman was simply joking when he made the remark about Dunford. Dempsey has total confidence in Dunford, Lapan said.
– Among the six Americans killed in Afghanistan yesterday was 25-year-old foreign service officer Anne Smedinghoff, reports CNN, the first US diplomat to be killed since Chris Stevens died in September. John Kerry led the mourning for her today, saluting the "vivacious, smart" up-and-comer who assisted him during a visit just two weeks ago as "a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to school children, to bring them knowledge." Smedinghoff died when her convoy was bombed in Zabul province. "I wish everyone in our country could see first-hand the devotion, loyalty, and amazingly hard and hazardous work our diplomats do on the front lines in the world's most dangerous places," said an emotional Kerry. Smedinghoff hailed from the Chicago area, notes the AP, and was a three-year veteran of the foreign service who had previously served in Venezuela. “We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world," her parents told the Washington Post. “The world lost a truly beautiful soul today.”