Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer were killed in Libya yesterday following a mortar attack by pro-Gaddafi forces.

Hetherington created the documentary Restrepo which followed a platoon in Afghanistan for a full year. He was in Libya on his own and not on assignment.

The Washington Post:

On Saturday evening, Tim Hetherington, the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo," and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer, hitched a ride to this besieged city on the Ionian Spirit, where they prepared sandwiches for refugees and talked about their plans back home. On Wednesday evening, the ship ferried the bodies of the two renowned journalists back to Benghazi.

The two journalists were fatally wounded during an attack by Moammar Gaddafi's forces against rebels in Misurata. Two other photojournalists suffered injuries, some critical, according to doctors at the hospital where they were treated.

Hetherington, 40, a photographer and filmmaker who famously recounted the plight of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, died shortly after the attack, according to his family and a Washington Post reporter at the scene.

Hondros, 41, a photographer for Getty Images, died several hours later, according to Emma Daly, a spokeswoman for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. Hondros's depictions of war's toll have appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the front page of Wednesday's Post.

Watching Restrepo is guaranteed to elicit feelings of outrage, pride, and empathy as the young men face a war where the enemy wears no uniforms and rules of engagement can endanger their lives. Perhaps not as personal as HBO's Battle for Marjah but an excellent look at our soldiers in action nonetheless.