REPORT SAYS NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST KIDNAPPED – The German Press Agency dpa is reporting that an unidentified New York Times journalist visiting the site of the deadly NATO airstrike has been kidnapped along with his interpreter. ***UPDATE: Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal blog is reporting that the kidnapped reporter is Stephen Farrell.
The story says the provincial governor, Mohammad Omar, told a dpa reporter that the journalist went to Omarkhel village near the site of Friday’s attack to talk to villagers and was kidnapped by Taliban militants.
The governor told the news agency that the reporter and his Afghan interpreter were blindfolded by the militants and taken to an unknown location.
A search operation is reportedly underway by Afghan security forces.
The New York Times story of the attack carries a dual byline from Stephen Farrell and Richard A. Oppel Jr. The German news agency story does not name either of the reporters in its story.
In June, it was revealed that New York Times reporter David Rohde, his translator and their driver had been kidnapped by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan in November 2008. Mr. Rohde and his interpreter managed to escape by scaling a wall of the compound where they were being held. For seven months, the news organization managed to keep the news of the kidnapping suppressed for fear of the men’s safety. It even worked to keep the news of the kidnapping off Wikipedia.
The German Press Agency dpa is a 24-hour, independent news service with a global network of correspondents and editors.
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