Bodies of Slain Journalists Found

Bodies of Slain Journalists Found

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The bodies of four missing journalists were found Tuesday by anti-Taliban troops near the road that links Kabul and Jalalabad.

The journalists were identified as Maria Grazia Cutuli, of the Italian daily Corriere della Serral; Julio Fuentes, of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo; and Harry Burton and Azizullah Haidari, of Reuters.

The bodies were to be kept overnight in Jalalabad and sent to Pakistan early Wednesday, said a spokesman for the provincial government in Jalalabad.

The commander of a group of Pashtun fighters said his men found the journalists' bodies in a deserted place in the Kabul province that borders the eastern Afghan region and not far from where the people were reported missing on Monday. The Pashtuns said the bodies had multiple wounds in the head and were apparently shot from close range.

The journalists were traveling Monday in the lead vehicles in a convoy of 10-13 vehicles carrying journalists to Kabul. The gunmen, who ambushed the convoy about 60 miles east of Kabul, identified themselves as Taliban fighters but Jalalabad's Gov. Haji Kadeer said several bands of thieves and bandits also operate in the area.

Two drivers and an interpreter traveling with the slain journalists managed to escape the ambush and warned other vehicles to turn back. Officials at the Pakistani border post of Torkham said 30 to 40 journalists had returned after the incident.

Commander Zaman, a local warlord under whose protection the journalists had arrived in Jalalabad Sunday evening, said it was regrettable the convoy had left Jalalabad without any security.

A total of seven journalists are known to have been killed reporting on the war in Afghanistan, which began Oct. 7 as a U.S.-led response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In another development, the Taliban invited more than 100 journalists to visit their stronghold of Kandahar. "We want to show them how we still control Kandahar and that we are willing to fight till death," said a Taliban spokesman in the southern Pakistani town of Quetta.

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