 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(July 2021) |
John D McHugh (born 1973) is an Irish photojournalist and filmmaker, and is based in London, England.
| A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(July 2021) |
John D McHugh (born 1973) is an Irish photojournalist and filmmaker, and is based in London, England.
McHugh was born in London to Irish parents. Moving back to Ireland when he was an infant, he grew up in a rural farming community. He returned to London in 1997, and in 2002 he began working as a photojournalist. He freelanced for The Associated Press and The Guardian newspaper before becoming a staff photographer at Agence France-Presse in 2005. In 2007 he resigned his position and once again became a freelancer.
Self-taught, McHugh has worked extensively in Afghanistan since the start of 2006. He was one of the first journalists to cover the Canadian deployment in Kandahar, and witnessed and photographed one of their very first operations to raid a bomb-making facility. The Canadians captured 10 Taliban suspects, [1] and McHugh's photographs caused a controversy in Canada. [2]
He was the first journalist to spend time with British forces after they took command of the southern Afghan province of Helmand in May 2006. His photographs of foot patrols through Lashkar Gah [3] and of British soldiers silhouetted [4] as they stand on a fort built by Alexander the Great were some of the first photographs that the British public saw from Helmand.
In 2007, McHugh embarked on a nine-month embed with US troops in Afghanistan. Just five weeks into his trip, the unit he was with was caught in an ambush. 18 soldiers were killed and 11 wounded. McHugh was also wounded, shot through the chest.
Six months later, he had recovered and returned to Afghanistan. He talks about childhood lessons of getting back on horses that threw him [5] when explaining his reason for returning to Afghanistan after his injury.
In 2007 McHugh began working with audio and video alongside his photography. He also began writing about his experiences.
In 2008 The Guardian commissioned McHugh to produce a series initially entitled "Fighting Season" but subsequently renamed John D McHugh in Afghanistan [6] which included photography, audio slideshows, short documentary films, and blogs. The project involved spending months living with the soldiers under fire along the border with Pakistan.
McHugh was awarded a Special Award for Hard News by The Picture Editors Guild in 2005. [7]
In 2007 he won the Frontline Club Award, which focuses on "journalistic integrity, courage and the independence of spirit" for his work in Afghanistan. [8]
2009 saw McHugh's film Combat Outpost' [9] nominated for The Rory Peck Award for News.
Panjwayi is a district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It is located about 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Kandahar. The district borders Helmand Province to the southwest, Maywand District to the west, Zhari District to the north, Arghandab, Kandahar and Daman districts to the east and Reg District to the south. Panjwayi was reduced in size in 2004 when Zhari District was created out of the northern part of it, on the northern side of the Arghandab River, which now forms the northern boundary.
Canada's role in the Afghanistan War began in late 2001. Canada sent its first element of soldiers secretly in October 2001 from Joint Task Force 2, and the first contingents of regular Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) troops arrived in Afghanistan in January–February 2002. The operations were aimed at identifying and neutralizing Al-Qaeda members in that country and toppling the Taliban regime which was supporting international terrorism. Canada's role in the Afghan conflict grew in 2006 when Canadian troops relieved US forces in Kandahar province, taking command of the multinational brigade in the region during a major Taliban offensive.
The Taliban insurgency was an insurgency that began after the group's fall from power during the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces fought against the Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, and later by President Ashraf Ghani, and against a US-led coalition of forces that has included all members of NATO; the 2021 Taliban offensive resulted in the collapse of the government of Ashraf Ghani. The private sector in Pakistan extends financial aid to the Taliban, contributing to their financial sustenance.
Operation Mountain Fury was a NATO-led operation begun on September 16, 2006 as a follow-up operation to Operation Medusa, to clear Taliban insurgents from the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. Another focus of the operation was to enable reconstruction projects such as schools, health-care facilities, and courthouses to take place in the targeted provinces.
Gabriele Torsello is an Italian freelance journalist and photojournalist based in London who was abducted in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on 12 October 2006. Kosovar businessman Behgjet Pacolli played a major role in negotiating Torsello's release on 3 November 2006. Torsello is a Muslim convert, and author of The Heart of Kashmir.
Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and support to the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), within the central Asian country.
Roddy Scott was an English freelance photojournalist who documented neglected conflicts in such places as Sierra Leone, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. He derived the bulk of his income from updating The World's Most Dangerous Places and traveled widely in his freelance journalism career, usually without sponsors or payment.
The following lists events that happened during 2004 in Afghanistan.
Events from the year 2007 in Afghanistan.
Stephen Grey is a British investigative journalist and special correspondent for Reuters. He received the 2006 Joe and Laurie Dine Award from the Overseas Press Club for his book Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program.
The Helmand province campaign was a series of military operations conducted by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces against Taliban insurgents and other local groups in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Their objective was to control a province that was known to be a Taliban stronghold, and a center of opium production. None of the ISAF's intended strategic and political objectives were achieved in the long term.
Henry Vaughan Lockhart Smith is an English restaurateur, sustainable farmer, and freelance video journalist. He ran the freelance agency Frontline News TV and founded the Frontline Club in London. The Guardian has described him as "a former army officer, journalist adventurer and rightwing libertarian."
Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, was a British-led military operation of the War in Afghanistan in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. It aimed to secure various canal and river crossings to establish a permanent International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence in the area. The commander of the operation declared the first stage a success on 27 July 2009.
See also: 2007 in Afghanistan, other events of 2008, 2009 in Afghanistan and Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (2001-14).
Operation Moshtarak, also known as the Battle of Marjah, was an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pacification offensive in the town of Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It involved a combined total of 15,000 Afghan, American, British, Canadian, Danish, and Estonian troops, constituting the largest joint operation of the War in Afghanistan up to that point. The purpose of the operation was to remove the Taliban from Marja, thus eliminating the last Taliban stronghold in central Helmand Province. The main target of the offensive was the town of Marjah, which had been controlled for years by the Taliban as well as drug traffickers.
Armadillo is a 2010 Danish documentary film about Danish soldiers in the War in Afghanistan directed by Janus Metz. The film follows a group of soldiers from the Guard Hussars Regiment who are on their first mission in Helmand Province at a forward operating base near Gereshk named FOB Armadillo. The film premièred at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. It was awarded the Grand Prix de la Semaine de la Critique.
Jerome Starkey is an English journalist, broadcaster and author best known for covering wars and the environment. He challenged US forces over civilian casualties in Afghanistan and was deported from Kenya in 2017 after reporting on state-sponsored corruption and extrajudicial killings.
Nick Paton Walsh is a British journalist who is CNN's International Security Editor. He has been CNN's Kabul Correspondent, an Asia and foreign affairs correspondent for the UK's Channel 4 News, and Moscow correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Afghanistan.
Events in the year 2017 in Afghanistan.