Taliban claims capture of US soldier

September 16th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Veteran al-Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid alias Abu Walid al-Masri, who was married to Australian Rabiah Hutchinson in Afghanistan in 2001, has issued a directive to kidnap foreign civilians, including Australians in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the capture, detention and torture of al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners by the US and its allies. Hamid has been detained in Iran since 2003, but remains an influential figure in the militant movement and has maintained contact with his followers through jihadist websites, despite his imprisonment.

September 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Security forces killed 16 more militants, at least two of them senior Taliban members, while one soldier was killed in clashes during searches in Swat on Monday, the military said in a daily update. Over 1,700 militants have been killed since Pakistani security forces launched the military operation against Taliban militants in the month of April.

September 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least one soldier and eight militants were killed in clashes in Pakistan's northwestern region, the army said Saturday. Troops engaged the rebels near Banjot in the Swat district, resulting in "five terrorists and one soldier" killed, an army statement said.

September 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least 30 militants and a soldier were killed in clashes in Pakistan's northwestern region, security officials said Saturday. The paramilitary Frontier Corps said in a statement that 22 rebels were killed in fighting in the remote valley of Tirah in Khyber, a tribal district that borders Afghanistan.

September 6th, 2009 KABUL - A US soldier was killed Sunday in a Taliban attack in eastern Afghanistan, the military said in a statement. The soldier died one day after another US soldier was killed in the same region in a militant attack, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

August 26th, 2009 LONDON - Video footage released by Britain's Channel 4 has shown a Sri Lankan soldier shooting a suspect Tamil rebel at point blank range in spite of the latter being young, naked, bound and blindfolded. To top it all, the visibly amused soldier simply says after the killing: "It's like he jumped." According to The Times, the footage appears to show what the Tamil community and human rights campaigners have long alleged-that in its final surge against the Tamil Tiger rebels this year, the Sri Lankan Army summarily killed prisoners.

August 10th, 2009 KABUL - Taliban leader Mullah Omar's council is reportedly waiting for a response from the United States to its demands before deciding on the fate of a captured American soldier. It was the first news of 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe R Bergdahl since a Taliban video was released on July 18, certifying that he was in the captivity of the militants.

July 19th, 2009 KABUL - An American soldier, who went missing in eastern Afghanistan late last month, has appeared on a video posted at a website by Taliban, pleading to his countrymen to force the US government to pull out its troops from Afghanistan. A US military spokeswoman in Afghanistan confirmed that the man in the video was the missing US soldier and said that the military was doing every possible thing to secure his release.

July 17th, 2009 KABUL - Taliban commanders delivered an ultimatum to the U.S. military on Thursday to withdraw from south eastern Afghanistan or an American soldier they had captured last week would be killed.

July 3rd, 2009 KABUL - Taliban representatives have said that the American soldier kidnapped by them has been sold to a local insurgent group, and added that they will release a video to prove their claim. Military officials said low-level militants in Afghanistan's Patika province nabbed the soldier and reportedly "sold" him to members of the Haqqani network, a hard-line terror group with ties to the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

July 2nd, 2009 American soldier feared captured in AfghanistanWASHINGTON — An American soldier is believed being held by the Taliban after he walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan without his body armor and weapon, officials said Thursday. The military has intercepted communications in which insurgents said they had captured an American, two U.S.

July 2nd, 2009 US: American soldier captured in AfghanistanKABUL — Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Thursday.

June 4th, 2009 US soldier killed in AfghanistanKABUL — An American soldier was killed Thursday when a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, U.S.

May 4th, 2009 LAHORE - The already troubled Swat peace deal between the Pakistan Government and the Taliban received another blow when the Taliban militants attacked an Army convoy in Bari Kot region on Monday. The attack killed one soldier and injured another, the army sources disclosed.

January 1st, 2009 KABUL - A British soldier was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, marking the first loss of the year for the NATO-led international forces in the war-ravaged country, officials said Friday. The soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand Thursday, the New Year's Day, a NATO spokesman said.