By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan – Two U.S. troops are missing in eastern Afghanistan, a military official said Saturday. An Afghan official said one may have been killed and the other captured by the Taliban.
Also Saturday, five American troops died in bombings in the south where international forces are stepping up the fight against the insurgents.
The two missing service members had left their compound the previous day in Kabul and did not return, a NATO statement said. It did not identify the pair by nationality, but U.S. officials said they were American.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The military dispatched vehicles and rotary-winged aircraft to search for the two and their vehicle.
Samer Gul, district chief of Charkh district in Logar province, said that a four-wheel drive armored vehicle was seen Friday night by a guard working for the district chief’s office. The guard tried to flag down the vehicle, carrying a driver and a passenger, but it kept going, Gul said.
“They stopped in the main bazaar of Charkh district. The Taliban saw them in the bazaar,” Gul said. “They didn’t touch them in the bazaar, but notified other Taliban that a four-wheel vehicle was coming their way.”
The second group of Taliban tried to stop the vehicle, but when it didn’t, insurgents opened fire and the two occupants in the vehicle shot back, he said.
NATO said a search is under way for the missing service members. According to Gul, one may have been killed and the other taken hostage by the Taliban.
“Maybe they wanted to go to Paktia province or to the American base, but they came down the wrong road toward Charkh,” Gul said. “They didn’t pay any attention to the police. Otherwise we could have kept them from going into an insecure area and now this unfortunate incident has happened.”