By David Brunnstrom
Kabul - The body of a United States Navy Seal commando who was the last of a group of four that went missing in Afghanistan last month has been found and it appears he was killed in action, the US military said on Monday.
The body was located during a search and rescue operation on Sunday in the eastern province of Kunar and indications were he had been killed in a clash with militants there on or about June 28, the day the team went missing, a military statement said.
It said two of the missing commandos were found dead on July 4, having been killed in action, while another was found alive the previous day.
Continues Below ↓
'The location and disposition of the service member's remains indicate he died while fighting' The Taliban had said the missing commando was captured by the guerrillas in the eastern province of Kunar on June 29 and beheaded on Saturday.
A US helicopter sent to aid the Seals was shot down on the same day they went missing, killing all 16 troops aboard, including eight other Navy Seals, the heaviest US losses in a single combat operation in Afghanistan.
The deaths have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in Afghanistan and have come amid stepped-up militant violence ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.
The US military has said it had no indication to suggest the missing man had been captured.
"The location and disposition of the service member's remains indicate he died while fighting off enemy terrorists on or about June 28," the US statement said.
It said the name of the missing man was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
CNN earlier quoted a senior US defence official as saying the commando was killed in a shoot-out with insurgents and there was "no way" he had been held in captivity.
Taliban spokesperson Abdul Latif Hakimi said at the weekend that the US commando was beheaded on Saturday morning and his body, dressed in red clothes, dumped on a mountainside in Kunar's Shegal district.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
