Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer for the Reuters news agency;
Harry Burton, an Australian cameraman for Reuters; Julio Fuentes, a Spanish
correspondent for the Madrid-based newspaper El Mundo; and Maria Grazia
Cutuli, an Italian correspondent for the Milan-based daily Corriere della
Serra, were killed by a group of gunmen who ambushed their convoy.
The journalists were traveling through eastern Nangarhar Province at the head of a convoy of about eight vehicles when they were stopped by a group of armed men near the town of Sarobi, some 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of Kabul. Gunmen dragged the four journalists out of two of the front cars, marched them into the surrounding hills, and executed them using Kalashnikov rifles, according to a driver and translator who were allowed to flee and later spoke to reporters.
On the morning of November 20, the bodies were brought to Jalalabad, where colleagues identified them.
Although an anti-Taliban coalition in Jalalabad had chosen a new governor for Nangarhar that weekend, local authorities had not secured full control over the province.