THE WHUMPING sound of helicopter blades shattered the stillness of the night as British and Afghan commandos descended from ropes into a Taliban compound outside Kunduz city, in northern Afghanistan, early yesterday morning.
Down below, British journalist Stephen Farrell and his Afghan interpreter Sultan Munadi huddled in a room. Realising a rescue raid was under way, they worried what was coming next. Panicked Taliban fighters milled about and the two journalists feared one might hastily kill them. So they took a fateful decision – to dash for freedom.
The exact sequence of violence that unfolded remains unclear, and is the subject of an official investigation. But the outcome is not unclear. When the shooting was over Farrell (46), a New York Times correspondent with joint British-Irish citizenship, was aboard a Nato helicopter being whisked to safety.
But one of the British commandos who participated in the raid was dead. And so was Munadi, a softly spoken father of two who aspired to building a better Afghanistan, shot dead in a hail of gunfire. Freedom, as New York Times editor Bill Keller later said, had come at “such a cost”.
The drama started last Friday when Farrell, a reporter with a reputation for courage and tenacity (colleagues on previous postings often dubbed him “Robohack”), drove to Kunduz, the city in northeastern Afghanistan near where US warplanes, guided by German intelligence, had dropped two bombs on a convoy of petrol tankers. The explosions triggered a blaze that killed at least 70 people, according to reports, and a fresh wave of Afghan anger against Nato tactics.
To investigate, Farrell brought Munadi (34), an interpreter who had worked with the New York Times in Kabul since 2002. Earlier this year, Munadi moved to Germany to study public policy and he was home on holiday.
Early on Saturday, the two men drove to the Metarlam district, 7km (four miles) from Kunduz, where the Nato bombing had occurred. Police warned the area was controlled by the Taliban.
They found a group of angry villagers near the charred hulks of four petrol tanks, according to an account by Farrell’s driver. He described how an old man approached, warning them several times to leave. Automatic gunfire rang out. People started shouting “The Taliban are coming!”
About 10 armed men appeared on the far side of a river. The driver fled through the fields. Farrell and Munadi were captured.
News of the abductions quickly filtered out – a Taliban spokesman telephoned media stations to boast of their catch. But the western media, as has become customary in Afghanistan, remained quiet at the urging of New York Times editors who feared publicity would worsen the situation. On Sunday, local elders held a public meeting, or jirga, to request the Taliban to release the men, according to local parliamentarian Moen Marastial.
There was no result. The Red Cross and UN got involved in negotiations with Taliban commander Mullah Salam. New York Times correspondents were privately hopeful of a negotiated solution. But any hopes of a peaceful resolution were dashed in yesterday’s raid.
On Tuesday night, British special forces and Afghan soldiers headed for Kunduz. As the soldiers slid down ropes from the helicopter, Farrell and Munadi ran from their captors behind a wall.
According to an account posted on the New York Times website, Munadi stepped forward shouting “Journalist! Journalist!”, only to be shot dead. Farrell dived into a ditch, where he waited for a few moments until he heard British voices. He shouted “British hostage!” and the voices beckoned him from his hiding place. As he did, he saw Munadi’s body.
“He was lying in the same position as he fell,” Farrell told a colleague. “That’s all I know. I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He’s dead.” British officials said they could not rule out the possibility that Munadi had been killed by the attacking commandos. “All reports of civilian fatalities are always investigated thoroughly,” the UK ministry of defence said.
At about 7.30pm on Tuesday, New York time, Farrell rang his foreign editor, Susan Chira. “I’m out! I’m free!” he said.
Last night, British prime minister Gordon Brown hailed the “breathtaking heroism” of the British soldiers.
“As we all know, and as last night once again demonstrated, our armed forces have the skill and courage to act,” he said, adding that the operation was carried out after “extensive planning and consideration.”
But the rescue left many issues unresolved – about who made the decision to mount a rescue operation and whether it was the right one. Last night, the New York Times said that neither it nor Farrell’s family had known of the raid.
It underscored the growing dangers faced by journalists in Afghanistan. Only three months ago, another New York Times journalist, David Rohde, made a daring escape from a Taliban safehouse in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region. Rohde and his translator, Tahir Ludin, had been kidnapped seven months earlier in Afghanistan, and taken across the border by their captors.
The operation also raised questions about the obligations of western media to local employees. Yesterday, Muhammad Nabi, owner of the house that was raided, said the western special forces left Munadi’s body at the house, where it was discovered this morning. “The soldiers blew open the door of my house, killing my sister-in-law, and took the reporter away with them,” he told Reuters.
Yesterday, Rohde paid tribute to Munadi, who started working for the New York Times in 2002, as “an extraordinary journalist, colleague and human being . . . He represented the best of Afghanistan.”
But Munadi, who had taken leave to study for a masters in public policy in Germany, summed himself up best.
In a New York Times blog this month, he wrote of his love for his country, and how he intended to return: “And if I leave this country, if other people like me leave this country, who will come to Afghanistan?”