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| Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros, left, stands in front of a burning building while on assignment, in Misrata, Libya, on Monday. At right, photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who directed the documentary 'Restrepo,' is seen during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine in Afghanistan. Both died Wednesday covering fighting in Misrata. |
An Oscar-nominated war-film director and a second prize-winning photojournalist died covering a battle between rebels and Libyan government forces in the western city of Misrata on Wednesday.
Two other Western photographers apparently working alongside them were wounded.
British-born Tim Hetherington, co-director of the 2010 documentary "Restrepo" about U.S. soldiers on an outpost in Afghanistan, was killed, said his U.S.-based publicist, Johanna Ramos Boyer.
Chris Hondros, a New York-based photographer for Getty Images, died later Wednesday after suffering a serious head wound, according to Getty's director of photography, Pancho Bernasconi.
Neither of the men had protective gear with them, colleague Andre Liohn told The New York Times. The report said Liohn was at the triage center where medics treated the injured journalists after the attack.
Protective equipment has been difficult to bring into Libya from Egypt, The Times report said, as customs officials have thwarted the transport of equipment like helmets and flak jackets.
Doctors said two other photographers were treated for shrapnel wounds: Guy Martin, a Briton affiliated with the Panos photo agency, and Michael Christopher Brown, a New York-based photographer originally from Skagit Valley, Wash.
The bodies of Hetherington, 41, and Hondros, 41, were taken from Misrata to Benghazi on Thursday by the International Organization for Migration aboard the Ionian Spirit, which had been brought in to evacuate civilians from Misrata, according to a statement by Human Rights Watch.
Jeremy Haslam, a coordinator for the Geneva-based organization, said the boat had more than 1,000 evacuees, including 239 Libyan civilians and 586 migrants from Niger and others from Africa and Asia.
Martin and Brown remained in the hospital in Misrata.
Martin had shrapnel wounds and was undergoing surgery Wednesday night, The New York Times reported. Brown had shrapnel wounds but his life was reportedly not in danger.
The photographers were reporting from inside the only rebel-held city in western Libya, which has come under weeks of relentless shelling by government troops.
Hetherington tweeted Tuesday: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
The circumstances of the incident were unclear. Statements from Hetherington's family and from Peter N. Boukaert of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, said he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Leila Fadel, a Washington Post reporter who was at the hospital, reported that Hetherington was rushed from the battle by ambulance along with rebel fighters. He was taken to a triage tent next to the hospital, she said, and appeared pale and was bleeding heavily. He was pronounced dead some 15 minutes after his arrival, according to her account in The Washington Post.
