From Reuters:
KABUL – U.S. aircraft blasted militant positions in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday as U.S. forces searched for a sixth day for soldiers missing since just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down, police said.
Elsewhere, a pro-government Islamic scholar was shot and critically wounded near the southern city of Kandahar, the second such attack in just over a month, as militants stepped up violence aimed at derailing Sept. 18 parliamentary elections…
Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops have been searching since Tuesday for a “small” U.S. reconnaissance team that went missing in Kunar just before a U.S. helicopter carrying 16 Special Forces troops to their aid was shot down, killing all aboard.
The New York Times quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon official as saying the missing team numbered about a half-dozen soldiers. The last contact with them had been on Tuesday and the lack of radio contact since was worrisome, he said.
U.S. spokesmen say they have no reason to believe the men been killed or captured — contrary to Taliban claims — but militants in the area, bad weather and mountainous wooded terrain have hampered the search.
On Friday, U.S. spokesman Col. Jim Yonts said he could neither confirm nor deny a claim by Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi that insurgents had killed seven U.S. “spies” before the helicopter was shot down…
Update, “Special ops member rescued” from CNN, with thanks to Singh.
One member of a U.S. special operations reconnaissance team missing in Afghanistan since Tuesday has been rescued, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told CNN.
The team member “evaded the enemy and was successfully rescued by U.S. forces,” the official said…
When U.S. forces arrived at the site of the chopper crash, the small reconnaissance team was not there, military officials said.
There was no sign of blood or immediate combat, the officials said…