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.