KABUL: British commandos freed a New York Times reporter in an early morning raid on a Taliban hide-out in northern Afghanistan today. The journalist’s Afghan translator and one of the troops were killed in the rescue, officials said.

Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage

on Saturday, along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz, when they went to cover a German-ordered airstrike of two hijacked fuel tankers. The bombing, carried out by US jets, caused a number of civilian casualties.

One British service member died during the early morning raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, while the Times reported that Farrell’s Afghan translator, Sultan Munadi, 34, also was killed. Brown said, “We send his family our condolences.” Farrell was unhurt.

Gunfire rang out from multiple sides during the rescue, and a Taliban commander who was in the house was killed, along with the owner of the house and a woman, said Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor.

Munadi was killed

in the midst of the firefight, he said. A British defence official said he couldn’t rule out the possibility he was killed by British gunfire.

British special forces dropped down from

helicopters early this morning onto the house where the two were being kept, and a gunbattle broke out.

Farrell, 46, a dual Irish-British citizen, told the Times that he saw Munadi step forward shouting “Journalist! Journalist!” but he then fell in a volley of bullets. Farrell said he did not know if the shots came from militants or the rescuing forces.

“He was lying in the same position as he fell,” Farrell told the Times.