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LIBYA: Two photographers killed in Misrata

Two war photographers Tim Hetherington, associate British American magazine Vanity Fair, and American Chris Hondros, Getty agency, were killed Wednesday in Libya by mortar fire, highlighting the danger of this conflict Press.

Two other journalists were injured during the incident.

After two months of conflict between the pro-Gaddafi and rebellion, three journalists were killed, more than a dozen have been detained or were missing.

Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, both aged 41, were victims of a mortar in Misrata, city of western Libya besieged for weeks by the forces of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

A cameraman for Al Jazeera, Ali Hassan Al Jaber, was killed and another journalist from the television channel on March 12 wounded in an ambush near Benghazi.

Born in Liverpool, Great Britain, Tim Hetherington had covered many conflicts over the last ten years and won several prestigious awards, including the World Press Photo Award in 2007 for his photographs of American soldiers in Afghanistan. He then directed the documentary on this subject "Restrepo, Oscar nomination.

Shot in the head, Chris Hondros died several hours later. On Wednesday, a photo he had done was the front page of the Washington Post. It shows a sexton digging a grave in a cemetery in Misrata.Chris Hondros had covered conflicts including Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan or Iraq.Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize he won in 2006 the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his "exceptional courage and initiative" in Iraq.

Two other photographers were injured Wednesday: Britain's Guy Martin, a freelance photographer working for the agency Panos, according to the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Panos, and American Michael Brown, who worked for Corbis, according to its Director of Communications Dan Perlet.

At the announcement of the incident, the White House welcomed "journalists (who), the world risk their lives every day to inform us, to account executives and give voice to all those that nobody hear it. "

Tiziana Prezzo, an Italian journalist for Sky TG24, Tim Hetherington had met two days ago in Misrata."It was a very responsible," she told AFP.

"The previous two days were terrible. We saw a lot of people arriving at the hospital, wounded or dead, even small children. I told him: +'m very careful because one is safe anywhere, '" she added.

Several major international media were banned their reporters to go to Misrata due to excessive risks, before easing their restrictions. Dozens of journalists arrived on Wednesday afternoon by boat from Benghazi, a stronghold of the rebellion in the east.

The situation is dangerous also in line Ajdabiya-Brega, another area of ​​fighting between rebel forces and pro-Gaddafi in the east.A rain of rockets Sunday at Ajdabiya journalists were forced to retreat outside the city.

Besides the dangers of combat, there are the disappearances. The fate of a British journalist of Al-Jazeera, Kamel Ataloua, remains unknown. Three others in the chain, a Tunisian, a Mauritanian and a Norwegian, arrested along with him on March 7 in western countries, have been released.

Four journalists, two Americans working for newspapers online, a Spaniard and a South African, one and the other photographers, disappeared on April 4.The Libyan government said they were detained and would be released, but the White House said Tuesday that Americans were "very worried" about them.

The spokesman for the National Transitional Council (CNT), the official organ of the rebellion, Abdelhafiz Ghoqa, said Wednesday evening that six Libyan journalists were also in the hands of Gadhafi.