.Taliban Seize U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan
(CBS/AP) An American soldier is feared captured by insurgents after he walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan without his body armor and weapon, officials said Thursday.
The military has intercepted communications in which insurgents talked about holding an American, one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
A Taliban commander confirmed to CBS News' Sami Yousafzai Thursday that militants had captured one U.S. soldier and three Afghan nationals in Paktika province, near the Pakistani border.
The Taliban commander, who spoke to Yousafzai via satellite telephone from the region, said a group of militants cornered the American soldier and his Afghan counterparts near a U.S. military base and took them hostage.
He said the captives' fate would be decided by Taliban leaders, but that the Islamic extremist group would consider a prisoner swap.
"The case will be referred to Sirajuddin Haqqani (senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan) and other Taliban top leadership. They have to decide the future of the U.S. soldier, but we would not mind a prisoner exchange in this case," the commander told CBS News.
Paktika province sits along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. The kidnapping comes just as some 4,000 U.S. Marines begin a massive offensive operation in the southern Helmand province to clear the Taliban stronghold of militants.
The military was largely silent about details surrounding the kidnapping, believed the first such abduction of a U.S. service member in the nearly eight-year-old war.
But CBS News has learned that not long after the soldier disappeared, U.S. intelligence picked up radio chatter that he had been kidnapped. U.S. officials know he's already been sold to another group of Afghans - but no direct contact has been made with the kidnappers.
"We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's well-being," said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman in Afghanistan. Officials would not release his name, rank or other details.
"We understand him to have been captured by militant forces," Mathias said. "We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return."
According to information on GlobalSecurity.org, the U.S. military operates a Forward Operating Base in Paktika called Orgun-E, which "dramatically expanded in size" in recent years.
Prior to the expansion, the base was home to about 400 U.S. soldiers in 2003, according to GlobalSecurity.org. Orgun-E is said to be one of about a half-dozen such Forward Operating Bases maintained by the U.S. military along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border with Pakistan.
A senior Taliban commander later publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in statements to other media. CBS News' Khaled Wassef reports that the commander, Mullah Sangeen Zadran, is known to be affiliated with the group's commander in Afghanistan, Haqqani. Zadran is thought to be in charge of Paktika province.
Wassef reports that Zadran was reportedly targeted in two U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas last month. Some reports released on June 24 suggested that he had been killed during a missile attack targeting a group of Taliban commanders, including the head of the group's Pakistan branch Baitullah Mehsud, as they attended a funeral in South Waziristan.
Zardan denied reports of his death in the attack in telephone calls with a number of news agencies. He told Pakistani paper, The News, that he neither travelled to South Waziristan to attend the funeral nor suffered any harm. He added that he would soon issue a video statement to prove that he was safe.
No such video has been released thus far.
U.S. troops were brought in from nearby areas to help with the search for the missing solidier, which included helicopters, Afghan Army support and increased use of intelligence gathering resources, officials said.
The soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown," a U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Though he was missing, his body armor and weapon were found on the base, two officials said.
It wasn't until Thursday that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as "believed captured." Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
Initial reports indicated that the soldier was off duty at the time he went missing, having just completed a shift, one of the officials said.
Two U.S. defense sources said the soldier "just walked off" post with three Afghans after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base.
The missing man is an enlisted soldier serving in an Army infantry unit, and his family has been notified he is missing.
A number of civilians have been abducted in Afghanistan including aid workers and journalists - both foreigners and Afghans.
But the only other service member that officials could recall who had been captured was Petty Officer 1st class Neil C. Roberts, a 32-year-old Navy SEAL who was captured during a battle.
Roberts fell from a Chinook and was captured and killed by al Qaeda just months after the start of the war, in March 2002. Later, a second helicopter returned under fire and dropped troops near where Roberts fell. Six more Americans died in the fighting.
CBS
The military has intercepted communications in which insurgents talked about holding an American, one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
A Taliban commander confirmed to CBS News' Sami Yousafzai Thursday that militants had captured one U.S. soldier and three Afghan nationals in Paktika province, near the Pakistani border.
The Taliban commander, who spoke to Yousafzai via satellite telephone from the region, said a group of militants cornered the American soldier and his Afghan counterparts near a U.S. military base and took them hostage.
He said the captives' fate would be decided by Taliban leaders, but that the Islamic extremist group would consider a prisoner swap.
"The case will be referred to Sirajuddin Haqqani (senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan) and other Taliban top leadership. They have to decide the future of the U.S. soldier, but we would not mind a prisoner exchange in this case," the commander told CBS News.
Paktika province sits along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. The kidnapping comes just as some 4,000 U.S. Marines begin a massive offensive operation in the southern Helmand province to clear the Taliban stronghold of militants.
The military was largely silent about details surrounding the kidnapping, believed the first such abduction of a U.S. service member in the nearly eight-year-old war.
But CBS News has learned that not long after the soldier disappeared, U.S. intelligence picked up radio chatter that he had been kidnapped. U.S. officials know he's already been sold to another group of Afghans - but no direct contact has been made with the kidnappers.
"We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's well-being," said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman in Afghanistan. Officials would not release his name, rank or other details.
"We understand him to have been captured by militant forces," Mathias said. "We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return."
According to information on GlobalSecurity.org, the U.S. military operates a Forward Operating Base in Paktika called Orgun-E, which "dramatically expanded in size" in recent years.
Prior to the expansion, the base was home to about 400 U.S. soldiers in 2003, according to GlobalSecurity.org. Orgun-E is said to be one of about a half-dozen such Forward Operating Bases maintained by the U.S. military along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border with Pakistan.
A senior Taliban commander later publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in statements to other media. CBS News' Khaled Wassef reports that the commander, Mullah Sangeen Zadran, is known to be affiliated with the group's commander in Afghanistan, Haqqani. Zadran is thought to be in charge of Paktika province.
Wassef reports that Zadran was reportedly targeted in two U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas last month. Some reports released on June 24 suggested that he had been killed during a missile attack targeting a group of Taliban commanders, including the head of the group's Pakistan branch Baitullah Mehsud, as they attended a funeral in South Waziristan.
Zardan denied reports of his death in the attack in telephone calls with a number of news agencies. He told Pakistani paper, The News, that he neither travelled to South Waziristan to attend the funeral nor suffered any harm. He added that he would soon issue a video statement to prove that he was safe.
No such video has been released thus far.
U.S. troops were brought in from nearby areas to help with the search for the missing solidier, which included helicopters, Afghan Army support and increased use of intelligence gathering resources, officials said.
The soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown," a U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Though he was missing, his body armor and weapon were found on the base, two officials said.
It wasn't until Thursday that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as "believed captured." Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
Initial reports indicated that the soldier was off duty at the time he went missing, having just completed a shift, one of the officials said.
Two U.S. defense sources said the soldier "just walked off" post with three Afghans after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base.
The missing man is an enlisted soldier serving in an Army infantry unit, and his family has been notified he is missing.
A number of civilians have been abducted in Afghanistan including aid workers and journalists - both foreigners and Afghans.
But the only other service member that officials could recall who had been captured was Petty Officer 1st class Neil C. Roberts, a 32-year-old Navy SEAL who was captured during a battle.
Roberts fell from a Chinook and was captured and killed by al Qaeda just months after the start of the war, in March 2002. Later, a second helicopter returned under fire and dropped troops near where Roberts fell. Six more Americans died in the fighting.
CBS
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