By Jonathon Burch and Luke Baker
KABUL/LONDON (Reuters) - The rescue of a British journalist from the Taliban has provoked anger about the risks reporters take in war zones after his Afghan colleague and a British soldier were killed in the operation to free him.
In Britain, commentators said reporters need to think about the risks of those who might be sent to save them. In Afghanistan, local journalists mourned their colleague and expressed anger at an apparent double standard that saw the British reporter rescued while the Afghan reporter was slain.
British reporter Stephen Farrell and Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi, both working for the New York Times, were seized by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan on Saturday as they reported at the scene of a NATO air strike.
British-led commandos swooped on a Taliban hideout in Kunduz before dawn on Wednesday and managed to free Farrell. But in the process Munadi was shot dead and a British paratrooper was also killed, although it is not known who shot them.
A woman and a Taliban commander were also killed.
British forces and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have praised the success of the operation, but former members of the military questioned the risks taken by journalists, especially when warnings about the dangers involved had already been given.
Afghan police and other journalists say they advised Farrell that the area was under Taliban control and there was a strong risk he, as a foreigner, would be kidnapped.
"He got caught and he knew full well that people would have to risk their lives in order to save him," Andy McNab, a former member of British special forces, wrote in the Sun newspaper.
"That is irresponsible -- it is not a game out there. I don't care if he puts his own life at risk, but he put other peoples' lives at risk -- and they are dead."
Colonel Tim Collins, a former SAS officer, told the Daily Telegraph that Farrell had "a big thank you to give to the people who gave their lives to make up for his mistakes."
DOUBLE STANDARD
The incident highlights the little-discussed relationship between Western journalists, who get most of the by-lines and glory for going to dangerous places, and the local reporters, sometimes called "fixers", who share their risks.
Munadi's by-line appeared in the New York Times over many years. Yet in its own initial account of the raid, the newspaper described its veteran Afghan reporter as Farrell's "aide".
The newspaper later ran glowing tributes from other journalists who worked with him. Reporter Jane Scott Long said: "He was my eyes, ears and voice in unfamiliar territory after the fall of the Taliban.... I trusted him with my life. No question." At a cemetery on a hill on the outskirts of Kabul, scores of Afghan journalists gathered to pay their respects to Munadi.
"I really feel sad that we have lost a very active, objective member of the Afghan journalist community," freelance journalist Shuhaib Sharifi said. "But I really am angry also for the way it has happened. It's a mysterious death. It should be investigated. Why if it was a rescue operation wasn't it thoroughly planned?"
Many of the Afghan reporters said they planned to join a new press club, which would help look out for their interests.
One read out a statement on behalf of the press club, which condemned the Taliban for kidnapping the reporters in the first place, but also criticized the Western troops who carried out the raid for leaving Munadi's dead body behind.
"When they raid a place they just care about the foreign journalists," said Ramin Anwari an Internet journalist.
"There's no doubt the security situation for journalists is getting worse. We are caught in the middle of the Taliban and security forces. Journalists are not safe from either side."
Farrell produced his own account on Thursday, and said Munadi and their driver, who escaped the kidnap, had both "said it seemed all right" before they went to the scene. He noted the debt of gratitude he owes to the soldiers who saved him.
"There were some celebrations among the mainly British soldiers on the aircraft home, which soon fell silent ... I thanked everyone who was still alive to thank. It wasn't, and never will be, enough."
(Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy in LONDON, Hamid Shalizi and Yousuf Azimy in KABUL; Editing by Charles Dick)
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
