Taliban guerrillas threaten to execute captured US Navy Seal

By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent
Published: 08 July 2005

The Taliban said it was holding a US special forces soldier who has been missing in Afghanistan for more than a week and threatened to kill him. The US military said it had seen no evidence to support the Taliban's claim that they had captured the commando.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a Taliban spokesman, refused to provide evidence the soldier had been captured. "We don't need to do this because very soon we plan to execute him and then release his video to the world," he said.

The missing commando, who has not been named, is a member of the elite Navy Seals. More than 300 US soldiers have been searching for him since his four-man team went missing in the remote eastern province of Konar. One member of the team has been rescued by US forces after evading capture by insurgents for five days, but the American military has confirmed that two others are dead.

The incident has turned into one of the worst setbacks for US forces in Afghanistan. Sixteen American soldiers died during the rescue operation last week when their helicopter was shot down.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article297633.ece