'At the tip of the spear'

"In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO. (Apr 19)"

Sadly, those were the last words Tim Hetherington posted on Twitter. The renowned filmmaker was killed today in Misrata. He was co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” a haunting film about the Afghanistan War produced with Sebastian Junger (author of "The Perfect Storm"). Hetherington described Camp Restrepo as "the tip of the spear at the end of the Korengal Valley." Per the Washington Post, Hetherington, 41, was covering rebel fighting in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata when he was fatally wounded by mortar fire (two of his colleagues may also have been killed). Last August, Hetherington told a group of student filmmakers: "When I’m filming, I’m very focused. You need to be focused in this kind of situation ... You don’t really have time to start examining your emotions when you’re in the middle of this kind of situation. You kind of push them to a deeper place in your mind and examine them later." Sadly, "later" will never come. Rest in peace.