P\u00e5l Refsdal was born in Kongsvinger, Norway.<\/p>\n
He graduated from the Norwegian Army Ocer School in 1983 at the age of 19.<\/p>\n
Refsdal reported on various conflicts during the 1980s, including the Soviet-Afghan war, where he met British writer Jason Elliot, and he worked with Tamil separatists. He also covered guerrilla groups in Latin America, including the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity and the Shining Path in Peru. In 1999, he collaborated with the Kosovo Liberation Army, during which he was injured and later rescued with the help of Norway’s foreign minister.<\/p>\n
In 2009, Refsdal received funding to produce a documentary about the Taliban. While gathering material in Afghanistan, he was kidnapped and held for ransom. He converted to Islam during his captivity and was released on November 12, 2009, after negotiations involving the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.<\/p>\n
The documentary “Fanget av Taliban” was released in 2010, followed by an international version, “Taliban: Behind the Masks,” broadcast by CNN. Refsdal was nominated for the Rory Peck Award and contributed to a series that won the National Headliner Awards. His book “Geriljareporteren” was also published in 2010.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2013, Refsdal spent six weeks with Muslim rebel fighters in Syria during the civil war, describing them as sympathetic but militarily amateurish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
P\u00e5l Refsdal was born in Kongsvinger, Norway. He graduated from the Norwegian Army Ocer School in 1983 at the age of 19. Refsdal reported on various conflicts during the 1980s, including the Soviet-Afghan war, where he met British writer Jason Elliot, and he worked with Tamil separatists. He also covered guerrilla groups in Latin America, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5290,"template":"","reporter_type":[21,19],"reporter_location":[24],"class_list":["post-5291","reporters","type-reporters","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","reporter_type-contributor","reporter_type-reporter","reporter_location-international"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporters\/5291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reporters"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporters\/5291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5292,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporters\/5291\/revisions\/5292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"reporter_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter_type?post=5291"},{"taxonomy":"reporter_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter_location?post=5291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}