WASHINGTON – (voa) The death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl brings to nine the number of journalists killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the war on terrroism began after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
On November 11, French reporters Johanne Sutton from Radio France Internationale and Pierre Billaud from RTL radio, as well as German journalist Volker Handloik from Stern magazine, died in a Taleban attack. The journalists were on a Northern Alliance tank at the northeastern front, near the Tajik border. Four journalists were killed in an ambush attack on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul, in the east of Afghanistan just eight days later.
Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli from the Corriere della Sera; Spaniard Julio Fuentes from El Mundo; Australian cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari both from Reuters, were stoned and then shot dead.
On November 26, Swedish cameraman Ulf Stroemberg was killed after young burglars broke into his hotel room in Taloqan, northern Afghanistan.
And on February 21 this year, a videotape sent to U.S. authorities confirmed the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, but the date of his death remains a mystery. Mr. Pearl was kidnapped on January 23, while investigating Pakistani Muslims.
