Two German journalists who had pitched a tent on the side of a road outside a northern Afghan village were killed by gunmen, on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The two freelance journalists working for Germany's national broadcast outlet were the first foreign reporters killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, when eight journalists died.
A NATO soldier, meanwhile, was killed by militants who exploded a roadside bomb and fired on a military patrol in southern Afghanistan. A suicide car bomber targeted a US patrol in eastern Afghanistan but caused no casualties.
The slain journalists worked for Deutsch Welle, Germany's state-owned broadcast outlet, which produces news for radio, television and the Internet. The freelancers were not based in Afghanistan.
The Germans - a man and a woman whose identities were not released - were travelling in a Toyota four-wheel drive vehicle through the northern province of Baghlan, about 150 kilometres northwest of Kabul, and had stopped outside a small village, where they set up a tent to spend the night, said Mohammad Azim Hashami, the provincial police chief.
The killings came on the fifth anniversary of the October 7, 2001, invasion by US-led troops to oust the Taliban for hosting Osama bin Laden. Western forces and Afghanistan's Northern Alliance quickly routed the Islamic regime.
{{/usCountry}}The killings came on the fifth anniversary of the October 7, 2001, invasion by US-led troops to oust the Taliban for hosting Osama bin Laden. Western forces and Afghanistan's Northern Alliance quickly routed the Islamic regime.
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