Nato search for missing soldiers (Three soldiers killed two American)

BBC ^ | October 6th 2009 | BBC

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Two soldiers are missing in western Afghanistan after failing to return from a routine resupply mission two days ago, Nato officials have said.

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Nato added that three of its troops were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks on Thursday. Two of the soldiers were American, but the nationality of the third was not given.

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The service members disappeared near Afghanistan’s border with Turkmenistan, in the town of Bala Morghab and the province of Baghdis, said Sayed Ahmad Sami, the provincial police chief. They were last known to have been somewhere close to the Morghab River.

We still do not know their nationalities.

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The Taliban is claiming to hold the bodies of two drowned coalition soldiers.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Soldiers-Missing-In-Afghanistan/Article/200911115440895

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The Islamist militants’ spokesman Qare Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that they had recovered the bodies of the drowned soldiers Wednesday in the western Badghis province.

The province’s police chief, Abdul Jabar, said the two service-members were Americans, who drowned in a river after arriving in the area during a gunbattle Wednesday.

Via New York Times

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Sorry here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/06/world/international-uk-afghanistan-missing.html

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The thing is getting worse by the hour:

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search Friday for two missing U.S. paratroopers in western Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said.

The Taliban said the missing two missing soldiers were dead and it had recovered their bodies.

A statement by the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said more than 25 troops were wounded during a search and rescue mission.

Lieutenant Darin Russell, a spokesman for NATO forces, said the troops were wounded “by insurgent activity.” He declined to give further details of the incident, which he said was under investigation.

He was unable to say how many of the wounded were NATO troops and how many were Afghans, or whether any of them had been killed.

The chief of police in Badghis province in western Afghanistan, Abdul Jabar, said NATO aircraft had struck their own troops during the search and that several Americans had died in the “friendly fire” air strike.