NYT reporter freed from Taliban

Kabul

Sept. 10: Mr Stephen Farrell, a New York Times reporter held captive by militants in Afghanistan, was freed in a military commando raid early on Wednesday, but his Afghan interpreter was killed during the rescue effort. Armed gunmen seized Farrell and his interpreter, Sultan Munadi, four days ago while they were working in a village south of Kunduz.
An Afghan journalist who spoke to villagers in the area said that civilians, including women and children, were also killed in the firefight to free the journalists. That report could not be independently verified, and details of the operation itself were sketchy.
Mr Farrell and Mr Munadi were abducted on Saturday while they were reporting the aftermath of Nato airstrikes on Friday that exploded two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants.
Afghan officials have said that up to 90 people, including civilians, were killed in the attack, which Nato officials are now investigating. In a brief telephone call at 7.30 pm on Tuesday, Farrell told Ms Susan Chira, the foreign editor of The Times: “I’m out! I’m free!”
Ms Chira said, Mr Farrell told her that he had been “extracted” by a commando raid carried out by a lot of soldiers in a fierce firefight with his captors.
Mr Farrell said that he had also called his wife. Farrell, 46, joined The Times in July 2007 as a correspondent in the Baghdad bureau. Munadi had worked regularly with The Times and other news organisations.
In a second phone call to a New York Times reporter in Kabul, Mr Farrell said: “We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid. We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out.”
“Munadi and I ran outside. There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices. Munadi went forward shouting: ‘Journalist! Journalist!’ but dropped in a hail of bullets. I dived in a ditch,” said Farrell. After a minute, Mr Farrell, who holds dual Irish-British citizenship, said he shouted, “British hostage!” The British voices told him to come over. “As I came forward, I saw Munadi. He was lying in the same position as he fell. He did not move. He’s dead,” Mr Farrell said.