Taliban claim to have killed US commando in Afghanistan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-09 18:16

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan said they had executed an American commando they had been holding hostage since last week, a Pakistan-based news service reported.

But a US military spokesman in Kabul said there was no proof and the search for the soldier was continuing.

"Our service member is still missing, and search operations are ongoing. We have no proof that what the Taliban claim has happened," spokesman Lieutenant colonel Jerry O'Hara said on Saturday.

O'Hara was responding to an Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) report quoting a Taliban spokesman in Kunar province who said the American special forces soldier had been killed.

"Taliban have slaughtered the arrested American at 11:00 am (0630 GMT) in Kunar's Shegal area," AIP quoted Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi as saying.

The report could not be independently verified.

Hakimi has previously made inflated or untrue claims about clashes in Afghanistan between the Taliban and an 18,000-strong US-led coalition force deployed in eastern and southern parts of the country to hunt down militants.

The US soldier was among four who vanished last week in eastern Afghanistan after a helicopter sent to rescue them was shot down, killing all 16 on board.

One of the group was rescued alive on Saturday and two were found dead on Monday.

The US military has disputed Taliban claims the militia was holding its soldier. On Wednesday it said more than 300 US soldiers backed by military aircraft were searching the wooded mountains to locate the missing commando.

The helicopter crash, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for, caused the biggest death toll for US forces from a single attack since American and other forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks on Afghan and US-led forces in the run-up to the war-torn country's first post-conflict parliamentary polls in September.

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