British journalist Yvonne Ridley, released by the Taleban after 10 days as a captive in Afghanistan, has revealed she went on a hunger strike.
Ridley, aged 43, was escorted to the Pakistan border by Taleban officials after spending the first night of the US attacks on Afghanistan in Kabul, which was one of the targets of the military strikes.
Ridley, a reporter for London's Sunday Express, said at the Torkham border crossing that she was in good spirits and relieved to be free. But she later said she had been on a hunger strike and had written a secret diary on the inside of a box of toothpaste and a soap wrapper while she was being kept prisoner.
Describing the first wave of air strikes, she said: "When the night-time wave of attacks on Kabul started I was lying in bed and it was like fireworks being set off."
She said she was never physically abused.
