Anne Smedinghoff a 25-year-old US diplomat from Chicago was killed in a terrorist attack on Saturday while bringing textbooks to schoolchildren.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed six Americans including Diplomat Smedinghoff. The Taliban said that their target was either the coalition convoy traveling down the road or a caravan caring the Governor of Zabul. The terrorists did not specify which target they were after.

Reports from various other media outlets suggest that Smedinghoff was a popular diplomat and very good at her job.

From a young age Smedinghoff had wanted to travel the world helping people. She joined the US Foreign Services after graduating college. The Associated Press spoke with a co-worker of the US diplomat that was killed.

Solmaz Sharisi sat at the desk next to Smedinghoff. She admired the diplomat's spirit and her eagerness to help people. "What I admired most was her energy and enthusiasm and an unwavering commitment to the work she was doing, and it really did have an impact."

In her spare time Smedinghoff worked with the Afghan Women's soccer team and helped the female players to be better accepted in their society.

Sharisi also told the AP "She was young but she almost seemed like a seasoned foreign diplomat."

When the US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Afghanistan a few weeks ago, Anne Smedinghoff was his control officer. Kerry was in Turkey when he learned the US diplomat and those she was with were killed.

During a news conference in Turkey Kerry 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."

Kerry added, "Anne and those with her were attacked by the Taliban terrorists who woke up that day not with a mission to educate or to help, but with a mission to destroy. A brave American was determined to brighten the light of learning through books, written in the native tongue of the students she had never met, whom she felt it incumbent to help."

Anne Smedinghoff was born and raised in Chicago; she was the second of four children. Her father spoke with the Associated Press saying his daughter died doing what she loved.

"It was a great adventure for her ... She loved it. She was tailor-made for this job," her father Tom Smedinghoff said.

According to AP Anne Smedinghoff was the first diplomat killed since the 2011 terrorist attacks in Benghazi that claimed the life of diplomat Chris Stevens. No one has been brought to justice in the Benghazi attack.

It is unclear what course of action the US will take to bring the diplomat's killers to justice. In his press conference Kerry said,

"So it is now up to us to determine what the legacy of this tragedy will be. Where others seek to destroy, we intend to show a stronger determination in order to brighten our shared future, even when others try to darken it with violence. That was Anne's mission."

According to the Washington Post the remains of the US diplomat that was killed will be flown back to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The family will then hold a private funeral ceremony.