New York Times reporter held by Taliban escapes

David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped seven months ago by the Taliban, escaped from a compound in Pakistan by jumping over a wall, the newspaper’s website reported Saturday.

Rohde, 41, recounted to his wife shortly after gaining his freedom Friday night that he and interpreter Tahir Ludin escaped their captors in the North Waziristan region but that their driver, Asadullah Mangal, opted to remain behind.

The three were abducted Nov. 10 in Afghanistan’s Lowgar province, about 60 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, after traveling there to interview a Taliban commander. Rohde, part of a New York Times team last year that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan, was on leave to write a book on the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan when the three were seized.

One unsubstantiated report in Kabul suggested that Mangal developed sympathies for his captors, but this could not be confirmed. Catherine Mathis, the paper’s senior vice president for corporate communications, said she would not comment on his reasons for staying behind because there was conflicting information coming from the region.

Once over the wall, Rohde and Ludin managed to find a Pakistani military scout who took them to a nearby base. On Saturday, they were flown to the American military base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

The capture of the three men in Afghanistan and their transportation to Pakistan suggests how porous this troubled border is as military forces on both sides are mulling a coordinated offensive. The area is reportedly home to Osama bin Laden.

U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo said Saturday night that he could not confirm that Rohde was at Bagram, adding that the U.S. military had no involvement in the operation.

The State Department, however, consulted closely with and assisted the newspaper during Rohde’s captivity. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. was very pleased that Rohde was returning home safely, adding that the escape marks the end of a “long and difficult ordeal.”

Ludin, the interpreter, called his father about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, shortly after escaping, and warned him to leave his house in Afghanistan immediately for fear of Taliban retaliation, said a source in Kabul who declined to be identified. The source said Ludin’s foot was injured in beatings by the Taliban, and he is getting medical care at Bagram. The newspaper stated that preliminary reports suggested he injured himself while escaping.

Most of the newspaper’s staff also vacated the company’s bureau in Kabul on Saturday at Rohde’s suggestion, amid fears it too might be targeted. Mathis, the paper’s vice president, declined to comment on those reports.

During the seven months of his captivity, the newspaper avoided publicizing the kidnapping and requested that other media do so as well, believing this offered the best chance of securing his release.

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said on the company’s website that the paper paid no ransom nor were any Taliban or other prisoners released. He didn’t say whether there had been ransom negotiations, however.

Rohde and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, were married just two months before his abduction.

Deciding not to make public statements after a kidnapping offers certain advantages, said Stephen Mastalerz, chief executive of Fayetteville, Ark.-based Trojan Securities International, a training and anti-kidnapping consulting firm.

“Sometimes if you keep a low profile, it’s easier to handle, depending on what group’s involved,” said Mastalerz, who specializes in abductions in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Some of the factors that determine which strategy to follow, he said, include whether the group appears to be kidnapping just for money or whether it has a political agenda.

The fact that Rohde and Ludin were able to escape suggests that their captors let down their guard. But often captors and captives develop a rapport, and the guards gradually give prisoners more freedom, security experts said, making an escape easier.

Rohde grew up in Maine and earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1990 at Brown University before joining the Christian Science Monitor. The newspaper sent him in the mid-1990s to cover the Balkan conflict, where, while reporting on mass graves in Bosnian Serb territory in 1995, he was seized and held for 10 days. He won a Pulitzer Prize the following year for that coverage.

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mark.magnier@latimes.com

Times staff writer David Zucchino in Kabul contributed to this report.