2 Americans, Slain With Rebels, Reported Buried Near Afghan Village

Two Americans killed while filming the war in Afghanistan are buried near a village 25 miles west of Kabul, the capital, according to reports from Afghan guerrillas.

Qaribar Rahman, a spokesman for the main Muslim insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami, said Afghanistan’s Communist government had put a price on the heads of Lee Shapiro, 38, of New York, and technician Jim Lindelof, 30, of Los Angeles.

Details of how the Americans died in an ambush Oct. 11 came to light this week after their Afghan guide turned up alive in Pakistan.

The guide, Abdul Malik, limping from a leg wound, met with U.S. officials and representatives of Shapiro’s family, U.S. officials said. Malik did not attend a scheduled meeting with reporters.

According to Malik’s account, Rahman said, the Americans had been filming inside Afghanistan for 5 1/2 months when the insurgents they were traveling with were surprised by four Soviet helicopters in the Sanglakh Valley.

He said Lindelof was on horseback, weak from hepatitis, and was killed by a rocket during the first strafing run. Shapiro was wounded by bullets in the second pass, Rahman said.

After the guerrillas fled, the helicopters landed and unloaded a dozen Soviet soldiers, who took the gear of the Americans and two dead guerrillas, Rahman said, then shot Shapiro twice in the chest.

Guerrillas returned and found Shapiro alive, but he died three hours later, according to the guide’s account. Rahman said the bodies of the Americans were taken for burial to Jalrez, a village three miles to the south and about 25 miles from Kabul.

Seven foreign reporters have died in Afghanistan since the Kremlin invaded in December, 1979.

Informers told the Hezb-i-Islami insurgents there was a bounty on the two Americans of $2,900 if captured and $1,800 if killed, Rahman said. However, Rahman said he doubted if there was any connection between the reward and their deaths.

“They were dressed in (Afghan) clothes and looked the same as moujahedeen (guerrillas) from the air,” he said. “The Russians left the only evidence they had.”