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U.S. Journalist, Translator Killed In Afghanistan


NPR photojournalist David Gilkey is pictured at Kandahar Airfield on May 29.
NPR photojournalist David Gilkey is pictured at Kandahar Airfield on May 29.

A journalist for the U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR) and an Afghan translator were reported killed while on assignment in southern Afghanistan.

David Gilkey, an award-winning photographer and video editor, and his translator, Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed on June 5 when the Afghan Army unit they were traveling with came under fire near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province.

NPR said in a statement that two other NPR journalists were traveling with them but were not hurt in the attack.

Michael Oreskes, NPR's senior vice president of news and editorial director, said in a statement that Gilkey had covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him," Oreskes said.

Gilkey, 50, won the prestigious George Polk Award and a national Emmy and in 2015 became the first multimedia journalist to receive the Edward R. Murrow Award.

Tamanna, 38, was a freelancer who had also worked as a photographer and reporter for Xinhua and Turkey's Anadolu News Agency.

Twenty-six journalists have now been killed in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion of the country in 2001, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
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