Journalists round on coalition

       A group of Afghan journalists blamed the international coalition yesterday for the death of a kidnapped colleague during the British commando rescue of a New York Times reporter and accused the troops of having a double standard for Western and Afghan lives.
       The accusation came as British Prime Minister Gordon Browns office said troops had carried out the raid on Wednesday in an attempt to recover both British-Irish reporter Stephen Farrell and his Afghan translator Sultan Munadi and that the mission was authorised as the best chance of protecting life.
       The newly formed Media Club of Afghanistan, set up by Afghan reporters who work with international news outlets,also condemned the Taliban for abducting both journalists last week in northern Afghanistan as they investigated reports of civilian deaths in a German-ordered air strike. More than 50 Afghan reporters laid flowers yesterday at the Kabul cemetery grave of Munadi, 34,who died in gunfire as British commandos launched the rescue operation in northern Kunduz province.
       Mr Farrell survived and was taken away in a helicopter. One British commando was also killed in the raid.
       The German officer who ordered the deadly bombing of fuel trucks in Afghanistan violated procedures, a preliminary Nato probe has found, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported yesterday.Col Georg Klein overstepped his authority and poorly evaluated the situation, says the Nato report conducted following the air strike last Friday in the Kunduz province, which killed dozens.It is completely clear Col Klein did not respect decision-making procedures,a high-ranking German officer in Nato told the daily.
       Such a decision should have been referred to the headquarters of the Natoled International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), he said.
       Col Klein called in US warplanes last Friday to bomb two coalition fuel trucks that had been captured by Taliban militants, fearing they would be used as truck bombs against Nato forces.
       The preliminary report concluded however that Isaf troops were not in imminent danger as the trucks were stuck in the sand and were being monitored.
       Meanwhile, the UN-backed commission investigating fraud in Afghanistans presidential election has thrown out ballots from 83 polling stations across the country, all in areas with strong support for President Hamid Karzai. Mr Karzai has over 50% of the vote count.But if the commission throws out enough votes, he could drop below 50% and be forced into a run-off.