Veteran NPR Journalist, Translator Killed in Afghanistan Attack


Veteran NPR Journalist, Translator Killed in Afghanistan Attack

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – David Gilkey, a veteran news photographer and video editor for National Public Radio, and an Afghan translator, Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed while on assignment in southern Afghanistan, a network spokeswoman said.

Gilkey and Tamanna were traveling with an Afghan army unit near Marjah in Helmand province when the convoy came under fire and their vehicle was struck, the network's spokeswoman, Isabel Lara, said in a statement on Sunday.

Two other NPR journalists, Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva, were traveling with them and were not hurt, the Associated Press reported.

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. He let us see the world and each other through his eyes," Oreskes said.

Tamanna was a freelancer who often worked for NPR, Lara, the spokeswoman, said in an email, but offered few additional details.

Gilkey covered both national and international news for the radio network and its website and had made numerous trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to NPR's website.

Twenty-seven journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, not counting Gilkey and Tamanna.

Worldwide, nearly 1,200 journalists have died since 1992, according to CPJ's website.

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