Reuters photographer was killed after being left behind in retreat

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/afghanistan-conflict-reuters-siddiqui/

by akbarnama • 5 years ago

180 21 5 years ago

jumelles• 5 years ago

Fascinating and very sad. Photojournalists like Danish Siddiqui are incredibly brave.

aazaa• 5 years ago

The security group [in Reuters] approved the embed plan. “We were talking about the Afghan Special Forces, the elite,” said Rogers [Reuters global pictures editor]. “They had all the hospitals at their disposal, all the equipment needed to evacuate, including air support.” Siddiqui would join their headquarters near Kandahar.

On display here are the deep miscalculation and disbelief over it. It's a pattern that has unfortunately played out innumerable times in the last 20 years as organizations outside of Afghanistan tried to figure the place out and failed miserably.

s1artibartfast• 5 years ago

Even if they knowingly left him behind, sometimes you have to make hard choices in war.

Sacrificing a unit so that no man is left behind is a movie trope, not reality.

foolinaround6• 5 years ago

The loss of a photo journalist with integrity like Danish Siddiqui is an irreplaceable loss, merely because there really aren't (m)any left.

While this situation in Afghanistan was fraught with danger from the start, his reporting in the Delhi riots and UP (a state in India)'s handling of Covid really changed the dynamics of the public intercourse, and also the urgency of the government. He undertook it at personal cost as a muslim.

In this way, these photographs were as impactful as the napalm girl photo in My Lai, Vietnam.

We like to think of our country as having a free press, but we have one that is completely suborned to a political ideology, etc? Where are the similar photos of the body of the elderly stacked in NJ/NY? Is there a similar level of threat to lives of these reporters?

The lack of a properly functioning 4th estate does not bode well for our country.

bcrosby95• 5 years ago

Where are the similar photos of the body of the elderly stacked in NJ/NY?

There were plenty of photos and videos of people wheeling bodies into giant big rigs in NYC. Sometimes using a fork lift. CNN even has articles as recent as May 2021 talking about how those trucks are still full of dead bodies.

This is all just a search away. So I don't know where you got the idea that this stuff is being hidden due to political ideology.

foolinaround6• 5 years ago

Did you miss the point?

We are talking about 2 events during the pandemic.

bodies in big rigs in NYC -- they were shown to highlight the need for social distancing, masking, induce a sense of panic etc among the public - something that the media and party was game to.

the bodies in elderly homes - a political decision (there were alternatives to sending infected seniors back into these homes), and the media hid it, ostensibly to protect their masters.

That is what I was referring to?

I am wondering if you are even aware of these happening? I would say there was almost a blackout of these news during that time in the mainstream media.

34679• 5 years ago

The details in the article don't support the headline.

On Tuesday, July 13, Siddiqui joined a successful mission to rescue a policeman who was surrounded by insurgents
Three days later, on July 16, Siddiqui and two Afghan commandos were killed
In the weeks that followed, the Taliban conquered city after city.

ancientworldnow• 5 years ago

That's because the article is intended to lay blame at the US exit of Afghanistan and imply that the taliban is executing fighters. In reality, media embedded with soldiers in active combat occasionally die which is a tragedy but less useful for propaganda (hence the title).

isleyaardvark• 5 years ago

I don’t know how you can think that. The July 16 mission was a separate mission. The article goes into detail about that mission and about how he was killed after being left behind when the soldiers retreated during the July 16 mission.

ErikVandeWater• 5 years ago

Major-General Haibatullah Alizai, who was the commander of Afghanistan’s Special Operations Corps when it hosted Siddiqui in Kandahar, told Reuters it was evident now that, in fierce fighting, his soldiers withdrew from Spin Boldak and left behind Siddiqui and two commandos accompanying him, mistakenly thinking they had joined the retreating convoy. His account was corroborated by four soldiers who say they witnessed the attack.

The article uses the word abandoned, but it's not clear based on this account that he and the two soldiers with him were. Abandonment would imply knowingly leaving them behind. This could definitely be a fog of war situation in which they were expected to have moved and did not. No one thinks straight getting shot at unless they are an experienced professional.

maerF0x0• 5 years ago

“If we don’t go, who will?”

I just want to take a moment to honor the courage and sentiments of the man behind these words. RIP, may your family be ever proud.

They echo MLK's Ive been to the mountain top [1]

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

or (attributed) Dietrich Bonhoeffer [2]

First they came for the Communists,... there was no one left

May we soberly continue to consider these thoughts as we approach world affairs.

[1] https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemou...

[2] http://www.knowyourquotes.com/First-They-Came-For-The-Commun...

Reuters photographer was killed after being left behind in retreat

Related Stories