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Four die in Afghan rescue mission

Other News Materials 9 September 2009 17:18 (UTC +04:00)
Nato soldiers have rescued a kidnapped UK journalist from the Taliban in a dramatic pre-dawn helicopter mission in Afghanistan that left four others dead.
Four die in Afghan rescue mission

Nato soldiers have rescued a kidnapped UK journalist from the Taliban in a dramatic pre-dawn helicopter mission in Afghanistan that left four others dead, BBC reported.

New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was freed unhurt. His Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi was killed along with a UK soldier and two Afghan civilians.

Mr Farrell, who holds British and Irish nationality, was "extracted" by "a lot of soldiers", the New York Times said.

The pair were seized in northern Kunduz province on Saturday.

They were investigating a Nato air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers that left many dead.

It is not the first time Farrell has been abducted on assignment - in 2004 he was briefly kidnapped in Iraq while working for the London Times newspaper.

In remarks quoted on the New York Times website, Farrell said the Taliban tried to flee as the helicopters descended.

"There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices," he said.

The reporter told his newspaper he ran outside with Mr Munadi, reportedly a 34-year-old father-of-two who was on a break from university studies in Germany.

He said Mr Munadi had shouted "Journalist! Journalist!" before he fell to the ground in a hail of bullets.

Farrell said he did not know whether the shots had been fired by their rescuers or the militants.

The correspondent said he was beckoned by British voices from a ditch where he had hid, and as he emerged saw the body of Mr Munadi.

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