Four journalists were killed today in an ambush by armed men on the road from Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul, the Red Cross and Italy's Foreign Minister have confirmed.
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Mr Harry Burton, an Australian Reuters journalist, who was killed in the attack in Afghanistan Photo: Reuters
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An Australian and an Afghan, two Reuters journalists, and a Spanish and an Italian reporter were killed, the reports said.
It is not known who is responsible for the killings although Taliban militia are known to be in the area.
The Reuters reporters have been named as Australian television cameraman Mr Harry Burton and Afghanistan-born photographer Mr Azizullah Haidari.
The journalists were travelling in a convoy through the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar when armed men stopped them near a bridge at Tangi Abrishum some 90 kilometres east of Kabul, according to journalists who escaped the ambush.
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Mr Azizullah Haidiri, the Afghan Reuters journalist, who was killed today Photo: Reuters
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Two cars in a convoy of six to eight vehicles were stopped and their occupants forced out by armed men.
A driver at the Kabul bus station said he was driving from the eastern city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, when he saw a body on the road.
He stopped and found three more bodies. None had visible injuries except for one man who appeared to have been beaten about the face. One body was that of a woman.
The identities of the bodies was not clear, and the driver's account could not be independently confirmed.
After the armed men stopped the convoy, the other cars turned back swiftly for Jalalabad, journalists said.
The province was taken over by anti-Taliban tribal leaders last week, but pockets of Taliban and Arab fighters loyal to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden are believed to be roaming in many parts of the country.
Several convoys of journalists have driven along the road to Kabul from Jalalabad in the past few days. One group of Philippine reporters said they had been held up and robbed on Sunday.
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