NATO troops freed a kidnapped New York Times reporter in a raid before dawn today in northern Afghanistan, after he had been held for four days, an Afghan district chief said.

A witness said the reporter’s Afghan interpreter was killed.

Reporter Stephen Farrell was abducted Saturday along with the interpreter while trying to visit the scene of a NATO airstrike.

Abdul Waheed Omarkheil, district chief of Char Dara district in Kunduz province, said commandos had freed Farrell.


The district chief said an Afghan woman was killed during the raid in the house where the two men were being held. He had no information about the fate of the interpreter.

Mohammad Nabi, a resident of the district, said Taliban fighters with the two captives had stayed at his house that night after demanding shelter. He said NATO forces arrived by helicopter and killed his sister-in-law in the raid.

The troops left with Farrell, but not the interpreter, whose body was found outside the house in the morning, Nabi told Reuters.