US seeks missing commando

2005-07-06 11:40

Kabul - United States forces pressed on Wednesday with their search for the last of four commandos who vanished in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan and confirmed that two of the soldiers had been killed by enemy fire.

The four Navy Seals went missing last week during a major anti-insurgent mission in Kunar province. A helicopter sent to save them was shot down on June 28, killing all 16 aboard, and one of the soldiers was rescued on Saturday.

"The search is ongoing," said US military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara, without giving any more details.

The US military said late on Tuesday that it had found the bodies of two of the special forces soldiers on Monday and that they had been taken to a US military hospital at Bagram Airfield.

"The cause of the deaths was enemy fire, enemy actions," O'Hara said Wednesday.

Militants continued to operate in the area, with a joint US-Afghan medical team coming under attack from insurgents armed with machineguns late Tuesday near Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province.

There were no casualties on either side, a US military statement said.

A day earlier US forces detained six suspected militants and found a cache of five grenades, one rocket-propelled grenade, wires and timing devices, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and Taliban propaganda material, the US said.

US officials have said a "lucky shot" with a rocket-propelled grenade brought down the Chinook. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

US forces are "doing everything we can to find the last of the four Seals," said US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, speaking on President George W Bush's plane on the way to Denmark on Tuesday.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Larry DiRita said there were people "who are right now conducting an operation and their lives are at risk" searching for the missing Seals. He declined to give details.

The fate of the final soldier is a sensitive issue since the Taliban said over the weekend that they had captured a US serviceman. They have not produced any evidence to support the claim.

The helicopter was the first to be shot down by hostile fire in Afghanistan, and the highest toll for US forces from a single attack since US and other forces toppled the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said he was "extremely saddened and distressed" by the deaths of up to 17 civilians in a US airstrike that was linked to the rescue mission.

Presidential spokesperson Jawed Ludin said the Afghan government had launched its own investigation into the bombing. He urged officials to rethink military strategies, "especially those that can produce tragic results like the death of civilians."

- AFP