(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) > A journalist for the U.S.-basedNational 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.