US aircraft blasted militant positions in eastern Afghanistan today as US forces searched for a sixth day for soldiers missing since just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down, police said.
This afternoon CNN reported a US Special Forces operative missing since Tuesday has been rescued.
Quoting an unidentified US official, CNN said the soldier, who had been among a 16-member team which disappeared, was rescued by US forces and was in good shape.
CNN quoted the official as saying he had “evaded the enemy”.
Hundreds of US and Afghan troops have been searching since Tuesday for a “small” US reconnaissance team that went missing in Kunar just before a US helicopter carrying the Special Forces troops to their aid was shot down, killing all aboard.
It was the biggest single combat blow for US forces in Afghanistan since they overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
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 September 18 parliamentary elections.
In the east, US aircraft bombarded militant positions on a mountain between the Nangalam and Shorai areas of Kunar, the province where a small team of US soldiers have been missing since Tuesday, a senior Afghan police officer said.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had no information about casualties.
Earlier, the BBC quoted unidentified US military officials as saying civilians may have died in the bombing of a militant compound in Kunar province on Friday, but a US spokeswoman said ground troops were still assessing the effects of the strike.
Lieutenant Cindy Moore said she had no information about any new air strikes.
The governor of Kunar province, Assadullah Wafa, told Reuters reports he had were that 20 Taliban militants had been killed in Friday's air strikes, and no civilians.