NYT reporter freed; aide killed in rescue

KABUL – British commandos freed a New York Times reporter in a raid on a Taliban hide-out in northern Afghanistan early yesterday. The journalist’s Afghan translator and one of the troops were killed in the rescue, officials said.

Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage Saturday along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz when they went to cover a German-ordered airstrike of two hijacked fuel tankers. The bombing, carried out by US jets, caused a number of civilian casualties.One British service member died during the early morning raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, while the Times reported that Farrell’s Afghan translator, Sultan Munadi, 34, also was killed. Brown said that ‘we send his family our condolences.’ Farrell was unhurt.Gunfire rang out from multiple sides during the rescue, and a Taliban commander who was in the house was killed, along with the owner of the house and a woman, said Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor.Munadi was killed in the midst of the firefight, he said. A British defence official said he couldn’t rule out the possibility he was killed by British gunfire.Afghan officials over the weekend said about 70 people died when US jets dropped two bombs on the tankers, igniting them in a massive explosion. There were reports that villagers who had come to collect fuel from the tankers were among the dead, and Farrell wanted to interview villagers.The Times reported that while Farrell and Munadi were interviewing Afghans near the site of the bombing, an old man approached them and warned them to leave. Soon after, gunshots rang out and people shouted that the Taliban were approaching.Police had warned reporters who travelled to the capital of Kunduz to cover the tanker strike that the village in question was controlled by the Taliban and it would be dangerous to go there.The Times kept the kidnappings quiet out of concern for the men’s safety, and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, did not report the abductions following a request from the Times.Farrell, 46, a dual Irish-British citizen, told the Times that he saw Munadi step forward shouting ‘Journalist! Journalist!’ but he then fell in a volley of bullets. Farrell said he did not know if the shots came from militants or the rescuing forces.’All reports of civilian fatalities are always investigated thoroughly,’ Britain’s defence ministry said in a statement.Munadi was first employed by The New York Times in 2002, according to his colleagues. He left the company a few years later to work for a local radio station. He left Afghanistan last year to study for a master’s degree in Germany. He came back to Kabul last month for a holiday and to see his family, and agreed to accompany Farrell to Kunduz on a freelance basis. He was married and had two young sons. Farrell joined the Times in 2007 in Baghdad. He has covered both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts for the paper. – Nampa-AP