Anja Niedringhaus was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Kathy Gannon has covered Afghanistan for more than 25 years, longer than any other Western reporter.
The two AP journalists knew their way around dangerous places and shared a special gift for finding the humanity in the most war-ravaged places, something that shines through instantly in Niedringhaus' photos and Gannon's reporting.
They were working together Friday, as they had many times before. By their standards, it seemed a relatively benign assignment: watching Afghan election workers make preparations near the eastern city of Khost for Saturday's presidential poll.
They were sitting in the back of their station wagon when a police commander named Naqibullah walked up to the vehicle, shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is greatest," and opened fire with his AK-47, the AP reported.
Niedringhaus, 48, was killed instantly. Gannon, 60, was hit in the arm, according to her husband. She was flown to Bagram, the huge U.S. military base north of Kabul, and was in stable condition.
Gannon is a journalistic institution in Afghanistan. A Canadian who arrived in the region in 1988, she began covering Afghanistan's turmoil when the Soviet army still occupied the country.
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AP Photographer Killed, Reporter Wounded By Gunman In Afghanistan