Mistratet (Libya) April 21: Two photojournalists were killed and two others were injured during a mortar attack in Misrata, Libya, officials said on Wednesday.
Among the dead were award-winning war photographer Tim Hetherington and Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros.
Hetherington, one of the best-known photojournalists, produced powerful pieces for ABC News' Nightline from the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, and for the documentary Restrepo, which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival last year.
Hetherington was embedded with the Army unit in Afghanistan when Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta put his life on the line to save his comrades. Giunta later became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam.
British-born Tim Hetherington, 40, co-director of the documentary Restrepo about U.S. soldiers at an outpost in Afghanistan, was killed inside the only in western Libya, said his U.S.-based publicist, Johanna Ramos Boyer.
Hondros "was a renowned and highly awarded photojournalist who covered most of the world’s major conflicts since the late 1990s, including wars in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq and Liberia," Getty Images Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Klein said in a statement.
Hondros' work has appeared on several magazine covers, and in 2006, he won the Robert Capa Gold Medal, the highest honor for war photography, for his work in Iraq.
Chris Hondros, 41, a New York-based photographer for Getty Images, also was killed.
Hondros did his graduate work in photojournalism at Ohio University and had worked in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq and Liberia.
"He has an intimacy in his work," said Swayne Hall, a longtime friend who works as a photo editor with the Associated Press. "Some people will use a long lens so they don't have to get up close. But Chris will get up close. He's just not afraid to be with whatever he's photographing."
Two other photographers were injured in the attack. Guy Martin of Panos News Agency was gravely wounded, while photographer Michael Brown was less severely wounded.
The two other photographers - Guy Martin, a Briton affiliated with the Panos photo agency, and Michael Christopher Brown - were treated for shrapnel wounds, doctors said.
The circumstances of the incident were unclear. Hetherington's family said he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Hetherington was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2010 documentary film Restrepo, which tells the story of the 2nd Platoon of Battle Company in the 173rd Airborne Combat Team on its deployment in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008.
His awards include the Robert Capa Gold Medal, one of the highest prizes in war photography. Agencies