Missing U.S. Soldier May Be In Pakistan

The American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured, This video frame grab taken from a Taliban propaganda video.

The U.S. soldier kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan may have been taken across the border to Pakistan, complicating efforts to obtain his release, according to two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate him, and three Afghan soldiers captured with him.

The soldier, Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Idaho, is the first serviceman captured since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. According to a person actively involved in the search, a top Afghan insurgent commander has taken credit for capturing the soldier and has now moved the soldier to South Waziristan, Pakistan. U.S. armed forces are not permitted to operate inside Pakistan except under extreme circumstances.

The insurgent leader, Mullah Sangeen, has reportedly demanded the U.S. halt air raids as a condition for the return of the soldier.

Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said that "the efforts continue to locate the soldier, but we're not going to provide any details." The Pentagon yesterday announced that it took two days to determine that Bergdahl had been captured by enemy forces.

Officials at the Pentagon said they still believe Bergdahl is in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl was taken by Mullah Sangeen's men from village near the U.S. military post in Paktika, where he was stationed, according to a senior Afghan Army official in the province. The captors "punched and hit the soldier after some resistance. But than they were able to take the soldier and left all of his things: weapon, body armored and radios." The Afghan official says Bergdahl and the three Afghan National Army soldiers were moved from the near-by village and quickly vanished.

"We have an entire Afghan National Army platoon searching the area," says the Afghan official, who is searching for his soldiers as well. "But I suspect they might have moved him in to Pakistan already."

Yesterday, Bergdahl's captors released a video showing the soldier eating and sitting on a carpet. After Bergdahl is prompted by one of his captors, he is heard saying that the date is July 14th, nearly two weeks after he was captured, and that he is scared.



The footage of a US hostage promises to bring the forgotten war in Afghanistan back to American living rooms at a time of sharply rising casualties and uncertain support for the conflict. July has already turned into the bloodiest month on record for foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of his family. He went missing in early July from a small base in Paktika Province, a rugged region on the Pakistani border where the Haqqani Taliban network is powerful.

After his capture US Special Forces fanned out to try and prevent his kidnappers from escaping with their hostage across the border to Pakistan.

It is the first time in more than two years that a US soldier has been kidnapped in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has confirmed that the man in the video is the soldier whom the military says was captured July 2.

The 28-minute video shows him being interviewed in English by his captors. He gives his views on the war, Islam and the morale of US soldiers.

It was initially reported that the young American private walked off his remote combat outpost without a weapon. His absence was only discovered during a morning formation.

The soldier's own account of his kidnapping, given in the video, is that he was taken after lagging behind his fellow soldiers, while out on patrol. It is not clear which is the correct version of events.

There have been no direct negotiations with the kidnappers, according to the US military, but American forces were appealing to tribal leaders and local government officials to assist in the returning the soldier.

When he first disappeared, a military official left open the possibility that he was a deserter. The officials said he had walked off the base for reasons that were unclear, leaving his weapons behind and that it was not clear whether he left wearing his military uniform.