Saremi, Afghanistan bureau chief for the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, disappeared, along with a group of Iranian diplomats, on August 8, when Taliban fighters seized the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and captured the Iranian consulate. On September 10, a Taliban spokesman admitted that Saremi and eight other Iranians had been found murdered near Mazar-i-Sharif. On August 10, CPJ urged Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to investigate Saremi’s disappearance; after learning of the assassination, CPJ called on him to launch an investigation into the killing.