They died in the line of duty

PARIS, NOV. 12. ``They shot at us with Kalashnikovs. They were very close to the tank, with Kalashnikovs and anti-tank rockets,'' the French radio journalist, Ms. Veronique Reyberotte, said in describing the Taliban ambush in which two of her French colleagues and a German journalist were killed early today. Interviewed on the radio station France Inter, Ms Reyberotte said that she, 34-year-old Johanne Sutton of Radio France Internationale and Pierre Billaud (31), of RFL Television and Radio, were all sitting on the back of a tank heading for the village of Gulbakhar, north of Kabul. ``We never thought we were risking anything,'' Ms Reyberotte said. ``We were joking about having found an Afghan interpreter who didn't speak very much.''

After about 10 minutes, the tank on which they were travelling came under fire from Taliban fighters. ``Everything happened very fast,'' Ms Reyberotte said. ``We heard lots of shooting. The tank braked violently, and the people fell or jumped off. It was pitch-black night.''

Ms Reyberotte remained on the tank, which was still under fire and hurriedly left the scene. ``There was no question of turning back,'' she said. ``We were in the middle of nowhere. It was agony not knowing what happened to our friends who fell from the tank.'' According to French media reports, when soldiers of the Northern Alliance returned to the scene of the ambush, Sutton, Billaud as well as the German journalist Volker Handloik were found dead.

Colleagues said the journalists were among six reporters who had set out with Northern Alliance forces to try to verify opposition claims to have captured the town of Taloqan. Ms Rebeyrotte and another journalist who was present, Mr. Paul Mcgeough of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, said Taliban forces waiting in ambush opened fire on the vehicle at close range with semi- automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

``Three of us clung on for grim death and we survived,'' Mr. Mcgeough reported. Ms Rebeyrotte said the armoured personnel carrier left the three journalists behind and their bodies were later recovered by alliance troops. Hundreds of foreign reporters are working in areas controlled by the Northern Alliance to cover the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban. ``We were in a hurry to get into the Taliban zone, to see a bit what was happening on the other side,'' Ms Rebeyrotte said. ``This is a real nightmare, an absolute nightmare.''

RTL said Billaud, who had also reported from Algeria, Bosnia and Kosovo, had been in the country for three weeks. ``Yesterday was the first time Pierre had the chance to see the war he had been covering,'' the broadcaster said. Sutton had worked for RFI for 10 years and had also covered conflicts in Kosovo, Macedonia and West Asia. Handloik, from Rostock, had been reporting from the region since early October.

- Reuters, DPA

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