Reporters Without Borders deplores the death of two journalists yesterday in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Grigol Chikhladze, the head of Alania TV, and Alexander Klimchuk, the head of the Caucasus Press Images agency and a correspondent for Itar-Tas, were killed while trying to cover the arrival of Georgian forces.

According to reporter Orkhan Jemal of the Russian edition of Newsweek, they were travelling at the time in a privately-owned car with US reporter Winston Federley and fellow Georgian reporter Teimuraz Kikuradze.

When the car tried to avoid roadblock erected by Ossetian pro-independence fighters, the Ossetians opened fire, killing Chikhladze and Klimchuk and wounding Kikuradze and Federley, who were taken to a field hospital in Tskhinvali, Jemal said.
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RIP
Alexander Klimchuk was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. He received a BA degree in Jounalism at the Faculty of Newspapers and Magazines Editing of State University of Georgia in 2002. Till and during studying he worked as writer for russian newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovski Komsomolets (own reporter in Georgia) and other. After University he began shooting. Firstly, as staff for Eye of Georgia and as freelance for ITAR-TASS, Photoexpress, EPA. He actively involved with Polaris Images producing photojournalism and feature work, covering major stories worldwide. His photographs have been published in: Newsweek, The New York Times, Le Monde and other well known magazines and newspapers.

Giga Chikhladze was especially known for his reporting on minorities of Georgia, Here is a link to his report “The Yezidi Kurds and Assyrians of Georgia: The Problem of Diasporas and Integration into Contemporary Society”
http://www.aina.org/reports/tykaaog.pdf