Rescued UK journalist: Thanks will never be enough

A British-Irish journalist has paid tribute to the troops who rescued him from the Taliban in Afghanistan, while colleagues of his slain interpreter have demanded an inquiry into his death.

A UK soldier and respected Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi, as well as two civilians, died yesterday as Nato troops freed New York Times correspondent Stephen Farrell from Taliban captivity.

Writing on his blog the reporter said he had thanked the soldiers who saved him but accepted that 'it will never be enough'.

The 46-year-old said Mr Munadi, a father-of-two who was acting as his interpreter when the pair were kidnapped on Saturday, died 'trying to help me'.

Mr Farrell and Mr Munadi were taken hostage when they tried to visit the site of a Nato air-strike on two hijacked oil tankers that reportedly left dozens of civilians dead.

On his blog he defended their decision to first visit a nearby hospital and then the site itself.

'The drivers made a few phone calls and said the road north appeared to be safe until mid to late afternoon,' he said.

'It was close to the cut-off point, but if we left immediately we could do it.'

Mr Farrell added: 'There was no sign of hostility from the crowd, only faces eager to tell a story.

'A crowd began to gather, time passed and we grew nervous. I do not know how long we were there, but it was uncomfortably long. I am comfortable with the decision to go to the riverbank, but fear we spent too long there.'

Army officials have privately questioned whether the operation to rescue Mr Farrell and Mr Munadi, sanctioned by UK prime minister Gordon Brown, should have been launched.

'When you look at the number of warnings this person had it makes you really wonder whether he was worth rescuing, whether it was worth the cost of a soldier's life,' a senior army source told the Daily Telegraph.

'In the future, special forces might think twice in a similar situation.'

Senior Afghan journalists have meanwhile demanded answers of the death of father-of-two Mr Munadi, whose body was left behind after being shot.

'It is not clear at all what happened and that is why we asked the Afghan Journalists Organisation to appeal to the British government to launch an investigation,' Vincent Brossel, regional head at Reporters Without Borders, told al-Jazeera.

'We must know exactly what happened because it is not clear. We don't have any clear hypothesis, and we need the truth because there is a lot of anger among Afghan journalists.

'He was a very respected and senior journalist in Afghanistan, so we must know the truth.'

On his blog Mr Farrell recalled the manner of Mr Munadi's death.
'I did not know whether the bullets came from in front, to his right or to his left,' he wrote.

'It was over. Sultan was dead. He had died trying to help me, right up to the very last seconds of his life.'