British journalist freed by UK commandos

A British journalist taken captive by Taliban militants has been freed by Nato troops in Afghanistan in a rescue that saw his interpreter killed.

New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, who holds joint British and Irish nationality, was rescued in the early hours of the morning in a northern Afghan province.

Mr Farrell said his Afghan interpreter, father-of-two Sultan Munadi who was also abducted, died in the rescue operation.

The 46-year-old's kidnapping on Saturday, en route to the site of a Nato air-strike upon two captured oil tankers at Kunduz, was kept secret to avoid jeopardising a rescue operation.

According to the Associated Press news agency, Mr Farrell was rescued by helicopter-borne commandos who attacked Taliban compounds in northern Afghanistan in the early hours of the morning local time.

UK forces were involved in the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) operation, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told inthenews.co.uk.

'Efforts have been underway to secure the release of two hostages in Afghanistan,' a spokesperson said.

'We can confirm Isaf forces have freed one hostage.'

The New York Times, which said it was not aware of the rescue operation, said Mr Farrell rang the paper's foreign editor Susan Chira at 19:30 New York time last night (00:30 BST) with the words 'I'm out, I'm free'.

Mr Farrell, who joined the New York Times in July 2007 as a correspondent for their Baghdad bureau, later called back to give a more detailed account of his rescue.

'We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid,' he explained.

'We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out.'

At this point, Mr Farrell said, he and Mr Munadi ran outside the room in the direction of 'British voices'.

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

But as Mr Munadi ran out shouting 'journalist, journalist' in English he was hit by a hail of bullets.

Mr Farrell ran out of the room next shouting 'British hostage' and heard voices shouting back to approach their position.

'He was lying in the same position as he fell,' he said of Mr Munadi.

'That's all I know. I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He's dead. He was so close, he was just two feet in front of me when he dropped.'