UK reporter freed in Afghan raid

A UK journalist abducted 1 in Afghanistan has been freed by Nato troops in a dramatic pre-dawn raid.
　　New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was kidnapped on Saturday along with Afghan interpreter Sultan Munadi while investigating a Nato air strike.
　　Mr Munadi - a father of two - was killed during the rescue operation.
　　Farrell, who holds dual 2 British-Irish nationality, said he was "extracted" by "a lot of soldiers" after a fierce（激烈） firefight, the New York Times reports.
　　Farrell, 46, had travelled to Kunduz in northern Afghanistan to investigate an air strike last Friday on two hijacked 3 fuel tankers 4, in which dozens of civilians 5 reportedly died.
　　It is not the first time Farrell has been abducted（绑架） while on assignment - in 2004 he was kidnapped in the Iraqi city of Falluja while working for the London Times newspaper.
　　Special forces?
　　The New York Times website reported he phoned the foreign editor of the newspaper at about 0030 BST (2330 GMT) and said: "I'm out! I'm free." Farrell said he also called his wife.
　　The Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid, we thought they would kill us, there were bullets（子弹） all aroundStephen FarrellWho are the Taliban?
　　Farrell 'kidnapped' in IraqIn a second telephone call to his newspaper, he said he and his captors had heard helicopters approach before the rescue.
　　"We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid," Farrell told the New York Times. "We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out."The reporter said he ran outside with his interpreter, who AFP news agency reports was a 34-year-old man working in Afghanistan while on a break from university studies in Germany.
　　"There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices," Farrell continued.
　　He said Mr Munadi advanced shouting: "Journalist! Journalist!" But the translator was shot and collapsed 6.
　　Some reports from Afghanistan suggest that British special forces were involved in the rescue.
　　But a UK defence ministry 7 spokeswoman told the BBC: "It was a Nato operation, we do not comment on special forces."'Taliban is coming!'
　　Farrell said he did not know whether the shots had been fired by their rescuers or the militants 8.
　　The correspondent said he dived into a ditch and after a minute or two, shouted: "British hostage!"Farrell then heard British voices telling him to come over and as he did, saw the body of Mr Munadi.
　　Up to 70 civilians were killed in the Kunduz air strike, reports sayBill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, said: "We're overjoyed that Steve is free, but deeply saddened that his freedom came at such a cost."The two were kidnapped in the Kunduz area on Saturday while investigating the Nato air strike of a day earlier that unconfirmed reports say left some 70 civilians dead.
　　German commanders had called in a US jet to bomb two hijacked fuel tankers, and the New York Times team was in the area to cover the story.
　　Their driver, who escaped the kidnapping, told the newspaper they had been interviewing villagers about the bombing at the site of the burned-out fuel tankers.
　　An old man approached the visitors and warned them twice to leave. Then gunfire rang out and people started shouting: "The Taliban is coming!"The driver said he ran away across fields after seeing a group of about 10 armed militants running toward them.
　　Farrell is the second New York Times journalist to be kidnapped in Afghanistan in a year.
　　In June, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Rohde and his Afghan colleague were abducted in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and moved across the border to Pakistan from where they escaped.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)