Two NATO soldiers missing in Afghanistan
2009-11-06

Category Taliban Nations Afghanistan City Kabul Category Regions Regions Asia People Barack Obama Event Afghan Terror War Source (AFP)

KABUL (AFP) - At least 25 NATO and Afghan soldiers were wounded Friday as the hunted for two US paratroopers missing in remote northwestern Afghanistan, NATO said.

The two missing soldiers were from the 82nd Airborne Division, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Afghan police said they had died by drowning, apparently accidentally, during a routine logistics operation in Badghis province.

It was not immediately clear how the soldiers carrying out the search for the missing paratroopers had been wounded, although Afghan police reported clashes with Taliban militants.

"During a joint operation in western Afghanistan today, initial reports indicate more than 25 ISAF and Afghan National Security Force members were wounded. Members of the joint force were searching for two missing US Army soldiers," ISAF said in a statement.

"The wounded service members were initially treated on the scene and subsequently flown to an ISAF medical facility for further treatment.

"We are committed to taking every measure possible to rescue or recover our missing service members. We continue to do everything we can to find them," the statement quoted US Navy Captain Jane Campbell as saying.

Earlier the deputy police chief of Badghis said the missing men had drowned and that their bodies had not yet been recovered.

"Two days ago, a NATO forces aircraft dropped some logistical packages for a NATO base in the province and a number of these packages went into the river nearby," the deputy police chief, Abdul Jabar, told AFP.

"Two NATO soldiers went to take these packages from the river and drowned.

"During the search, we clashed with Taliban and three of them were killed. We still haven't been able to find the two missing soldiers. The search operation is still ongoing," he said.

There are more than 100,000 troops under NATO and US command deployed to Afghanistan to fight a Taliban insurgency that is now at its deadliest in the eight years since US-led troops toppled the Islamist regime in Kabul.

Western Afghanistan in particular has seen a spike in violence, with Taliban insurgents planting homemade explosive devices at roadsides to maximise fatalities.

US President Barack Obama is currently considering a request from his military commanders to boost troop numbers by up to 40,000, a decision that is not likely to be made public for a number of weeks yet.

The senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, has warned that without more troops on the ground the war could be lost.

Nevertheless, the eight-year conflict is rapidly losing public support in Europe and the United States.

A YouGov poll in Britain showed Thursday that 57 percent of people thought British troops were not winning the conflict against Taliban insurgents, and "victory is not possible," an increase from 48 percent just two weeks ago.

Earlier Friday, ISAF said two Americans and one British soldier were killed on Thursday in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan.

Their deaths brought to 463 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, more than half of them Americans.