The captured New York Times reporter, David Rohde, fled his Taliban captors in a daring escape and now is safe at the Unites States Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. David escaped the clutches of the Taliban after a seven months long captivity along with a local reporter Tahir Ludin. However, their driver Mr. Manghal did not escape for reasons unknown.

Mr. Rhode, Tahir and their driver were researching on a book in Kabul, Afghanistan, when they were taken hostage by the renegade forces of the Taliban on November 10th,2008. David was part of the reporting team that won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for their incredible reporting on the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan last year.

According to David’s wife, Kristen Mulvihill, Tahir Ludin accompanied Mr. Rhode in the escape by climbing over the wall of the compound they were held captive in. After their escape, they contacted the Pakistani Frontier Corps base near North Waziristan on Saturday. From their, they were flown to the Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, now a permanent United States Air Force base.

According to Bill Keller (Executive Editor, The Times);

“From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David’s family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages. The kidnappers initially said as much. We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David’s plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support.”

David Rhode, was one of the very first reporters from the western media into the Bosnian Serb Territory while he was looking for the alleged mass graves from the genocide. Since the 9/11 terror attacks, Davis Rhode had visited Afghanistan on numerous occasions as a part of The Times’s investigations department.

Tahir Ludin, who also escaped the clutches of the Taliban along with David Rhode, is an Afghan reporter who was the interpreter for David’ the book project. He has has also worked with The Times London, along with other news agencies.

Via New York Times.