Bodies of two photographers set to be repatriated

THE bodies of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, two award-winning war photographers killed by a mortar attack in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, were yesterday being transported to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Diplomatic representatives from Britain and the US were to meet the ship and take possession of the bodies for repatriation, according to the men’s employers.

Hetherington, a 40-year-old Briton with dual US nationality who resided in New York, worked for the magazine Vanity Fair and was nominated for an Oscar for a documentary he produced and co-directed, Restrepo, on Afghanistan.

Hondros, 41, was a US photographer for Getty. His work featured in publications around the world.

The two were killed on Wednesday by a mortar strike as they were covering vicious combat in Misrata’s shattered central district, along the main Tripoli Street.

An AFP photographer, Phil Moore, had been with them and other journalists hours before the deadly attack.

They were covering a rebel assault on a building used by snipers stationed there by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, who have been blasting Misrata for more than six weeks to counter the insurgency there.

Liverpool-born Hetherington won the 2007 World Press Photo Award for his coverage of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Hondros had covered many of the world’s conflict zones over the last decade, working in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq, and Liberia, among other places.

In 2006 he won the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal photography award for his “exceptional courage and enterprise” in Iraq.

Pictures: Tim Hetherington (green fatigues) pictured in 2007 and Chris Hondros (blue vest) pictured in 2003 (AP Photo/Getty Images)