یو بینک ہوم لون - گورنمنٹ مارک اپ سبسڈی اسکیم

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that an American photojournalist and his Afghan interpreter have been killed in Afghanistan while covering the war.

David Gilkey and his colleague Zabihulla Tamanna, who were killed on Sunday, were part of a crew reporting on Afghan forces in the southern part of the country. Both worked for the US National Public Radio, which also has a hugely popular news site. “This attack is a grim reminder of the danger that continues to face the Afghan people … and of the courage of intrepid journalists — and their interpreters — who are trying to convey that important story to the rest of the world,” Secretary Kerry said.

Gilkey, 50, had been covering the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq for NPR since 9/11. Tamanna, 38, was a photojournalist who had been working for NPR as a translator. The Afghan army vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by rebel fire near Marjah, in Helmand province.

At least 35 journalists, including 16 foreign media personnel, have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. “For the most part, these crimes have gone unpunished,” noted a media advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders.“Let no one doubt that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place for journalists — local and foreign — working to cover that protracted conflict,” said Bob Dietz, a programme coordinator for another advocacy group, Committee to Protect Journalists.“We are deeply saddened by the deaths of Zabihullah Tamanna and David Gilkey. There are too many journalists who have given their lives to tell the Afghan story.”

AP adds: Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani called the attack cowardly and “completely against all the principles and values of Islam and humanity, and against all international laws”. In a statement from the presidential palace, Ghani was quoted as saying that the Taliban do not distinguish between the military, civilians and journalists, and that they killed Gilkey and Tamanna as the two were reporting on the war. He offered condolences to the families of the two journalists.

Later on Monday, Ghani travelled to Helmand to assess the security situation in the rich opium-poppy field region, which gives the world most of its heroin, controlled by the Taliban.

The US Embassy in Kabul and US Army General John W. Nicholson, commander of the US-Nato resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, also offered condolences. “David and Zabihullah, in particular, spent years in Afghanistan tirelessly endeavouring to tell the story of the Afghan people,” Nicholson said in a statement. “We have the utmost respect for their work as well as those others that endure the hardships that come with reporting from conflict zones.”

Attack lasted 30 to 40 minutes

The deputy spokesman for the 215 Army Corp in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, Major Abdul Qader, told The Associated Press that the vehicle Gilkey and Tamanna were travelling in came under sustained Taliban attack not far from the main army base in Marjah. He said their Humvee was “only 300 to 400 metres from the army base when suddenly they came under attack”. The Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, he said. A total of five people were in the Humvee at the time — Gilkey, Tamanna, a heavy machine gun operator who was on the roof of the vehicle, as well as an Afghan army soldier and driver. Along with Gilkey and Tamanna, the driver and the machine gunner were also killed, Qader said. The attack lasted 30 to 40 minutes, he said, during which time army helicopters were called in to provide air support. “The bodies were taken to the army base immediately after the attack, and then transported by helicopter to the corps command,” he said. Later Gilkey and Tamanna’s bodies were taken to Camp Bastion, the main army base in Helmand, formerly under the command of US Marines.

Gilkey had covered conflict and war in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York and was committed to helping the public see the wars and the people caught up in them, NPR’s senior vice president of news and editorial director, Michael Oreskes, said in a statement. “As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him” Oreskes said.

Tamanna, 37, was a freelance journalist who often worked as a translator for NPR, Lara, the spokeswoman, said in an email. Known as Zabi, he had many years of experience working as a reporter, cameraman and photographer for local and international news organisations in Afghanistan.