Kabul: Criticism mounted on Thursday over the dramatic airborne rescue from Taliban territory of a kidnapped Western journalist who walked free as four others, including his Afghan colleague, were killed.
Negotiators were deep in talks with the Taliban to free New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell and negotiations appeared to be progressing well before British commandos intervened with the rescue operation, a source said.
Farrell, who has dual British-Irish nationality, walked free, but his Afghan colleague and father of two Sultan Munadi, a British soldier, an Afghan woman and an Afghan child in the house were killed.
In Afghanistan, local journalists expressed anger over the death of Munadi, whose bullet-riddled body they said was abandoned at the scene for his parents to collect and take home for burial.
In Britain, the press questioned whether military force should have been used, saying hostage negotiators expressed anger at the raid because they were within days of securing the peaceful release of the journalists.
Farrell and Munadi were the second team from The New York Times to be kidnapped in Afghanistan in less than a year. Their abduction highlighted growing insecurity in the once relatively peaceful north of the country.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the "breathtaking heroism" of the commandos, but one person involved in the Taliban talks said negotiations were under way and that no one believed the journalists were in imminent danger.
Public support for British involvement in the eight-year Afghan war is plummeting over record soldier fatalities and a controversial presidential election mired in allegations of fraud and vote-rigging.
"There were a lot of people trying to make contact and keep the discussions going," said the source, adding: "We had contact with different parties, and were urging them to release the two journalists unconditionally."
Britain`s The Times newspaper, quoting defence sources, said the raid was mounted after British forces feared Farrell could be moved, and there were no guarantees that the negotiations would have led to his and Munadi`s release.
However, several other sources quoted by the newspaper said the kidnappers were, at worst, seeking a ransom.
An unnamed Western official told the paper, "It was totally heavy-handed. If they`d showed a bit of patience and respect they could have got both of them out without firing a bullet."
A friend of Munadi`s family said the soldiers traced the house where the two journalists were held by tracking signals from Munadi`s mobile phone when he called his parents to say he was safe.
Munadi`s parents had to collect his body themselves, with "no one to help them and take it back for burial," the family friend said.
"He was just left there, and the body was in a terrible state -- shot in the front and in the back, so it is impossible to know if he was killed by the soldiers or by the Taliban."
Naqibullah Taib, of the Afghan Independent Journalists` Association, said that Afghan journalists generally lack the experience to make split-second, life-saving judgments.
He called on international news organisations to "offer more training to Afghan journalists to ensure they are as well prepared as possible for situations that might come up."
Munadi was a senior reporter and manager with Afghan state radio before going to Germany to study. He had returned to Kabul on a summer break from his studies to spend time with his wife and children.
He was buried in Kabul on Wednesday not far from his family home.
Journalist colleagues visited his grave on Thursday to lay flowers, and on Friday a memorial prayer service will be held in a Kabul mosque.
The nature of Farrell`s release mirrored anger that many Afghans expressed over the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist in 2007. His interpreter was beheaded and his driver killed.
Farrell, writing about his four days in captivity and the rescue operation in The New York Times blog, said he was "comfortable" with his decision to go to the riverbank where a NATO air strike killed scores of people last week.
He said Munadi was shot dead right in front of him before the soldiers dragged him away to a helicopter.
"It was over. Sultan was dead. He had died trying to help me, right up to the very last seconds of his life," he wrote.
Bureau Report
