2 Journalists Killed in Afghanistan

Two German journalists who had camped beside a road outside a northern Afghan village were killed by gunmen early Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Karen Fischer, 30, and Christian Struwe, 38, worked as freelance journalists for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s state-owned broadcast outlet. They were the first foreign reporters killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, when eight journalists died.

The two were traveling through the northern province of Baghlan, about 100 miles northwest of Kabul, the capital. They had stopped for the night outside a village and set up a tent, said Mohammed Azim Hashami, the provincial police chief.

They were killed by AK-47 gunfire about 1:30 a.m., he said.

Hashami said nothing was stolen, including their vehicle.

The two had been conducting private research for a documentary, Deutsche Welle said. Director Erik Bettermann called them “pioneers in reestablishing a functioning media system in Afghanistan” and said Struwe helped set up a state-run radio and television newsroom.

In the country’s south, a NATO soldier was killed by militants who detonated a roadside bomb and fired on a patrol. A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. patrol in eastern Afghanistan but killed only himself.