British Special Forces bring home NYT reporter

[Onkel Neal]

A very brave and dangerous operation. Unfortunatly, they lost one of their own, and the Afghan journalist.

One senior Army source told the Daily Telegraph "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."

Reporter's account of the ordeal

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[danlisa]

I am happy that a life has been saved but I'm outraged that this journalist firstly ignored advise from people who knew the dangerous nature of the region and secondly that his actions cost the life of 2 people, one a highly trained and infinelty more valuable to a war effort than some poxie journo.

His blood-soaked helmet was in front of me throughout the flight.

I hope this time was well spent reflecting in his stupidity and the agony and heartbreak he has caused the victims family.

Originally Posted by danlisa

I am happy that a life has been saved but I'm outraged that this journalist firstly ignored advise from people who knew the dangerous nature of the region and secondly that his actions cost the life of 2 people, one a highly trained and infinelty more valuable to a war effort than some poxie journo.

Plus two civilians died. And for some reason the body of Munadi, the Afghani journalist, was left behind. Bit strange.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/as...ter/index.html

[antikristuseke]

Special forces people generally know what they sign up for. He lost his life in the line of duty. That being said, The journalist did act like a proper arsehead and personaly would not concidered the recources spent worth it to save him.

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Plus two civilians died. And for some reason the body of Munadi, the Afghani journalist, was left behind. Bit strange.

I wouldnt call leaving a corpes in a gunfight strange, but that must just be my weird standards where a dead body is not really worth risking anyones neck for.

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

I wouldnt call leaving a corpes in a gunfight strange, but that must just be my weird standards where a dead body is not really worth risking anyones neck for.

Well they did retrieve the body of the dead soldier. I guess different rules apply to Afghani journalists.

[antikristuseke]

From what I could tell from the article, the soldier in question was qounded, but died of his wounds on the plane. But yes, even if he had died on the spot an afghani journalist is not a brother in arms in the same way a soldier is to a fellow soldier.

[mr chris]

Lets face it. The guys on the ground are not going to stay around looking for a Afghan jurno. When the prime target of the Op is accounted for and they are in a major fire-fight and they already have a man down. The comes a time when you have out stayed your welcome and it is time to get out of dodge.