UPDATE: The NYTimes is now confirming that Chris Hondros has also died. What a sh*tty story.
Earlier this morning, I reported that Pulitzer-nominated Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros had been killed in the same mortar attack in Misrata that killed Restrepo co-director Tim Hetherington. Unfortunately, it sounds like, by all accounts, Hetherington was indeed killed in the attack. However, it’s unclear whether Hondros also died, with most outlets reporting that he was seriously wounded.
Hondros, whose work appeared on the front page of Wednesday’s edition of the Los Angeles Times, was in critical condition with a head wound and in a coma.
Most of Misurata is in rebel hands, though it is ringed by Kadafi’s forces, which have superior firepower. The journalists had been working near the front lines with a local militiaman in an area contested by snipers and other fighters loyal to Kadafi. The journalists apparently were returning on foot to more secure territory when they were hit by the fire.
“We were trying to get to a safe place. It was too quiet. It felt dangerous,” said Guillermo Cervera, a freelance photojournalist who was a few yards away at the time of the blast. “I heard the whoosh of an explosion, and everybody was on the ground.” [LA Times]
The banner picture is one of the pictures Hondros had sent in before the attack. Sorry I don’t have any jokes or fun stuff to report with this. It’s impossible not to admire the brass balls of everyone involved here, both the journalists and the rebels. I know Gaddafi is a brutal dictator killing his own people and using the country’s resources to enrich himself, but if I lived in a city where rebels were getting shot, I’d probably be asking him how many pleats he wanted in his dress.
