© Timo Vogt
Alexander Klimchuk, seen about two years ago.
Update August 19: Reporters Without Borders now says its report on the death of a Russian Newsweek reporter in Gori is not confirmed. We will update this story if more information becomes available.
On PDNPulse: A memorial fund has been established for the families of Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze.
Two journalists including Georgian photographer Alexander Klimchuk were killed Sunday while covering the conflict in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, according to press advocacy groups.
With two more deaths Monday, four journalists have been reported killed since fighting erupted between Georgia and Russia last week.
It is an extraordinarily high toll for a conflict that has lasted less than a week. At least six other journalists have been injured and two more are missing, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Photographer Klimchuk and journalist Grigol Chikhladze died after their vehicle came under attack at a roadblock Monday, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Klimchuk was the head of the Georgian photo agency Caucasus Images, according to the agency's Web site. Chikhladze was working as a reporter for Russian Newsweek, according to friend and fellow journalist Timo Vogt.
Klimchuk was on assignment for the Russian news agency Itar Tass, CPJ reported. The Caucasus Images Web site displays some of Klimchuk's final images, showing soldiers on patrol August 5 in South Ossetia, several days before fighting broke out.
According to a short biography on the agency's Web site, Klimchuk was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. After graduating from college he worked as a writer for several Russian newspapers and later worked as a freelance photographer for several international photo agencies, including epa and Polaris Images.
In separate incidents in the Georgian city of Gori Monday, a reporter was killed when a shell hit his vehicle and a TV cameraman died in a bombing, RSF said.
TV cameraman Stan Storimans, 39, of the Dutch station RTL was killed in a bombing overnight Monday, The Times of London reported, citing RTL.
RSF said a Russian Newsweek reporter was killed and his driver injured when a shell hit their vehicle in Gori; RSF did not provide his name. Details about this incident were not available from other sources.
Georgia exploded in violence last week as Russian forces moved in to support separatists in South Ossetia. On Tuesday Russian leaders said they were halting the military operation, though media reports said fighting was continuing.
Two reporters were wounded in the South Ossetia incident that killed Klumchuk and Chikhladze. They were identified in reports as Teimuraz Kikuradze and Winston Featherly-Bean, an American who was working for an English-language newspaper in Georgia.
