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NPR Photographer David Gilkey Killed in Afghanistan
| Wall Street Journal | - |
KABUL—
David Gilkey, a photojournalist with National Public Radio, and his
Afghan translator were killed in an ambush in southern Afghanistan on
Sunday while traveling in an Afghan army convoy, according to the news
organization.
American journalist and Afghan translator killed while on assignment in AfghanistanDaily Mai
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ENLARGE
NPR photographer David
Gilkey at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, on May 29. Mr. Gilkey was
killed while on assignment in Afghanistan Sunday.
Photo:
Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Gilkey, along with two of his colleagues, were on a month-long assignment traveling around the country with local security forces. He was killed when his vehicle was struck by shellfire late Sunday afternoon. Mr. Gilkey’s interpreter, Zabihullah Tamanna, was also killed, while his colleagues were traveling in a separate vehicle and were unharmed.
The incident took place in the vicinity of a former U.S. military base known as Camp Hansen, in Helmand province’s Marjah district.
“Gilkey’s work in Afghanistan captured the intensity, stress, and danger of life on a battlefield as well as quiet moments in villages and on bases,” NPR said in a statement released after his parents were notified.
Mr. Gilkey had years of experience covering Afghanistan and was among the first journalists to cross the border into Iraq during the U.S. invasion. He also reported on the conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans, according to the NPR website.
Mr. Gilkey won numerous awards, including a George Polk Award for an NPR investigation into the U.S. military’s treatment of the wounded in 2010.
NPR said Mr. Gilkey saw his work as being more than just journalism.
“It’s not just reporting. It’s not just taking pictures,” Mr. Gilkey had said, according to NPR. “It’s do those visuals, do the stories, do they change somebody’s mind enough to take action?”
He was 50 years old, unmarried and didn’t have any children, NPR said.
“Even though he often was in the middle of some horrific situations, he was not someone who took unnecessary risks,” said Sean Carberry, a friend and former NPR Kabul correspondent. “It’s a tremendous loss to all of us who knew him and worked with him.”
A resident of Portland, Ore., Mr. Gilkey was in the process of moving to Washington, D.C., where he had recently bought an apartment, Mr. Carberry said.
Afghanistan is one of the riskiest places for journalists to work. In January, seven employees of Tolo TV, a local television network, were killed in a Taliban suicide attack.
The last foreign journalists to be killed in Afghanistan lost their lives in 2014, during the presidential elections. Swedish radio journalist Nils Horner was killed in an execution-style shooting in Kabul in March 2014. A month later, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead in eastern Khost province, when a policeman opened fire on her vehicle. Her colleague Kathy Gannon survived the attack.
Helmand province has long been one of the most dangerous regions in Afghanistan and in recent years has mostly slipped under Taliban control or influence. The major roads to the city, Lashkar Gah, are partly controlled by the Taliban, making them particularly risky to travel even during daylight hours.
Clashes on the outskirts of the provincial capital are routine, and late last year U.S. forces intervened to prevent it from falling to the Taliban.
“Horrific incidents like this remind us of the important role journalists play in America’s civic life. They help us understand beyond the headlines and see the humanity in others,” said Jarl Mohn, president and chief executive of NPR. “We are devastated by the death of David and Zabihullah. Our hearts go out to his family, his friends and his colleagues out in the field.”
—Michael Phillips contributed to this article.
