UK soldier dies rescuing Journalist Stephen Farrell
Always and Forever
The BBC reports the sad death of a UK soldier during the rescue of British journalist Stephen Farrell of the New York Times.
He died in a firefight with the Taliban during the operation to free New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. Mr Farrell, who holds British and Irish nationality, was “extracted” by “a lot of soldiers”, the New York Times said.
In the rescue mission in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, journalist Sultan Munadi, who worked as an interpreter with Mr Farrell, also died along with two Afghan civilians. Mr Farrell, 46, had travelled there to investigate an air strike last Friday on two hijacked fuel tankers when he was kidnapped. The New York Times website reported he phoned the foreign editor of the newspaper at about 0030 BST (2330 GMT) on Wednesday and said: “I’m out! I’m free.” Mr Farrell said he also called his wife.In a telephone call to his newspaper, he said he and his captors had heard helicopters approach before the rescue.
“We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid,” Mr Farrell told the New York Times. “We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out?”
Mr Farrell said he ran outside with his interpreter, who AFP news agency reports was a 34-year-old man working in Afghanistan while on a break from university studies in Germany.
“There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices,” he continued.
The correspondent said father-of-two Mr Munadi advanced shouting: “Journalist! Journalist!” But the translator was shot and collapsed.
Mr Farrell said he did not know whether the shots had been fired by militants or their rescuers.
He said he dived into a ditch and after a minute or two, shouted: “British hostage!”
Mr Farrell then heard British voices telling him to come over and as he did, saw the body of Mr Munadi.
Two other civilians were also killed in the exchange of fire, a local district governor has told the BBC.
One resident in the Char Dara district of Kunduz told the Reuters news agency that soldiers blew open the door of his house, killing his sister-in-law.
He said the Taliban had brought Mr Farrell and Mr Munadi to his home and demanded shelter.
Some reports from Afghanistan suggest that British special forces were involved in the rescue.
But a UK defence ministry spokeswoman told the BBC: “It was a Nato operation, we do not comment on special forces.”
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, said: “We’re overjoyed that Steve is free, but deeply saddened that his freedom came at such a cost.”
It is not the first time Mr Farrell has been abducted while on assignment – in 2004 he was kidnapped in the Iraqi city of Falluja while working for the London Times newspaper.
BBC NEWS | UK | UK soldier dies in Afghan rescue.
