Afghan police search for killers of two journalists

Police searched for gunmen who killed two German journalists while they spent the night in a tent in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.

The pair, a man and a woman, were killed in the northern province of Baghlan in the early hours of Saturday while camping en route to the central province of Bamiyan.

Police were stumped for a motive, an interior ministry spokesman in the capital Kabul said.

"Recently there was no security incidents in those areas," spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

"I don't know what happened this time ... we are working on that."

Baghlan is relatively calm and has seen little of the Taliban-linked violence plaguing southern and eastern Afghanistan, although unrest has increased this year and there are said to be pockets of Islamist militia in the area.

The journalists had wrapped up a stint with German troops in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and were travelling independently, an official with the German military said.

They worked for the Deutsche Welle network.

Their vehicle and some of their belongings were not taken after the murders, a colleague has said on condition of anonymity.

Most expatriates travel only with Afghan escorts or guards because of security concerns.

"They were trying to have a European night in Afghanistan," Mr Bashary said.

"It was a mistake -- even an Afghan cannot spend the night in a deserted area."

- AFP