Khost, Afghanistan, July 17 : A Taliban commander in southeastern Afghanistan said on Thursday a missing U.S. soldier is being held by insurgents and is unharmed but warned the military he will be killed if they try to find him.
The soldier has been missing in southeastern Paktika province since late June, just before thousands of U.S. Marines began a major new offensive in the Taliban heartland of Helmand in the south.
The U.S. military says the soldier is presumed captured and said it is doing all it can to get the soldier back.
Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin accused the U.S. military of harassing and arresting Afghans in Paktika and neighbouring Ghazni province in their search for the soldier.
“They have put pressure on the people in these two provinces and if that does not stop we will kill him,” Sangin, the Taliban commander for Paktika province, told a Reuters reporter by telephone from an undisclosed area.
“The soldier is fine and safe and our leadership council will decide about his fate,” he said.
U.S. military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Mathias said the military had posted and distributed leaflets in Paktika and neighbouring Ghazni province calling for his safe return.
“One of our American guests is missing. Return the guest to his home,” reads the leaflet, which includes a phone number and shows a U.S. soldier shaking hands with smiling Afghan children.
—Agencies