The Skateistan tragedy

Afghan kids skateboard near their homes on February 01, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

Foreign Policy magazine has a gallery of powerful photographs excerpted from the book Skateistan: The Story of Skateboarding in Afghanistan.

The photos are all the more poignant following the news that four young people involved in Skateistan's non-profit skateboarding programs were killed by the suicide bombing at NATO's ISAF headquarters in Kabul on Saturday.

The book tells the story of the NGO, which was founded in 2007 by Oliver Percovich to use skating to help young people in a country where nearly 70 per cent of the population is under 25.

As Percovich tells Foreign Policy, "The whole idea was that we're building something for the kids, in Afghanistan, and it doesn't matter if they're poor, or rich, or coming from different ethnicities."