BY Brian Kates and Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
U.S. troops are scouring eastern Afghanistan for an American soldier captured by insurgents, military officials said.
A Taliban spokesman said the terror group had the missing soldier - and vowed to release a video of him with their demands.
"Our leaders have not decided on the fate of this soldier," said a commander with the Taliban's hard-line Haqqani faction, according to Agence-France Press. "They will decide on his fate and soon we will present video tapes of the coalition soldier and our demand to media."
The Haqqani network is believed to control large swaths of eastern Afghanistan.
The soldier's identity has not been released, but officials said his family had been notified of his capture. It is the first time a U.S. soldier has been captured in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
"We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return," said military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. "We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's well-being."
A Taliban commander told CNN the soldier was kidnapped along with three Afghan soldiers after he got drunk during a visit to a local military post in the Yousaf Khel district. But a U.S. military official denied that claim and said he went missing in the Mullakheil district of Patika.
"The Taliban are known for lying and what they are claiming is not true," the source said.
A U.S. official said the soldier was discovered missing when he didn't show up for morning formation, but said it's highly unlikely he would have left the base on his own.
The capture came as 4,000 U.S. Marines launched a major offensive in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold. About 650 Afghan forces also are involved.
Dubbed Operation Khanjar or "Strike of the Sword," the fast-moving operation is the biggest Marine offensive since the bloody battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.
The operation was waged in an attempt to clear and hold the area ahead of Aug. 20 presidential elections.
"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement.
U.S. forces have stepped up their presence in Helmand, where Taliban have been able to operate freely.
"We are kind of forging new ground here," said Capt. Drew Schoenmaker, of Greene, N.Y., commander of Bravo Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
"We are going to a place nobody has been before."
A roadside bomb early in the mission wounded one Marine, but he was able to continue fighting, said U.S. military spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier. Officials said the mission took the Taliban by surprise and many had retreated.
Operation Khanjar is part of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's strategy to focus on securing the Afghan people with the hope that they will reject Taliban influence.
"The measure of effectiveness (in Afghanistan) will not be the number of enemy killed, it will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence," McChrystal, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said last month.
With News Wire Services
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