German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported on August 19 that the Taliban shot dead a family member of one of its journalists. Another family member was "seriously injured".

DW said the incident took place while Taliban fighters were "hunting" and searching homes for the journalist in Afghanistan. The journalist in question is "now safe in Germany".

DW's director general, Peter Limbourg, called on the German government to take action.

He said, "The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves. It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organised searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. We are running out of time!"

DW also alleged that the Taliban had "raided the homes" of at least three of its journalists. The heads of DW's broadcasting and administrative councils urged the German government to evacuate its journalists from Afghanistan.

Furthermore, DW stated that two men, whom they presumed to be members of the Taliban, had shot and killed a translator, Amdadullah Hamdard, on August 2 in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. He was a frequent contributor to Die Zeit, a weekly German newspaper.