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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| US hunts for missing SEAL |
| 2005-07-06 |
| US forces in Afghanistan were searching for the last member of a four-man commando unit today after they found the bodies of two of the soldiers and rescued another, officials said. The Navy SEAL commandos went missing during fighting with militants in the mountainous eastern province of Kunar more than a week ago and 16 of their colleagues were killed when a helicopter sent to rescue them was shot down. The casualties were the heaviest for US forces in a combat incident in Afghanistan since they overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and came amid stepped up militant violence ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections. "We are of course doing everything we can to find the last of the four SEALS, and it's a real priority," US President George W. Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley said. The bodies of two of the soldiers were found during a combat operation in Kunar, the US military said on Monday. Another member of the team was found alive with injuries which the military said were not life-threatening. A spokeswoman for the US military in Kabul, Lieutenant Cindy Moore, said a major anti-militant operation was continuing in Kunar,a large part of which was aimed at finding the missing commando. "We are aggressively trying to locate him," she said. The US military has said it has no information to indicate the missing commando may have been captured, as claimed by the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said last week video of a captured soldier would be provided to news organisations and photographs posted on the Taliban Web site - www.alemarah.com - but neither appears to have happened. Hakimi also said seven US "spies" had been killed by the guerrillas before insurgents shot down the helicopter sent to rescue them. The US search operation, which has involved hundreds of troops backed by attack helicopters and fixed-wing planes, has been hampered by rugged wooded terrain and cloudy weather. Kunar Governor Assadullah Wafa said on Monday that 17 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a US airstrike on Friday in the effort to find the missing troops. The US military said on Monday it had killed an "unknown" number of militants and civilians in the strike on a militant compound and regretted the loss of innocent life. Confirmation of the US deaths brought to 32 the number of US soldiers killed in militant-related violence since March, while 15 other soldiers and three civilian contractors died in a a helicopter crash caused by a dust storm in April. The deaths have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in Afghanistan since the Taliban's fall, but total US casualties remain a fraction of those on Washington's other key front in Iraq. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-07-06 17:12 |