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Kabul, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban have offered to exchange
the body of a U.S. Navy sailor they said was killed in an ambush
two days ago in exchange for insurgent prisoners, an Afghan
official said Sunday.


      U.S. and NATO officials confirmed that two American Navy
personnel went missing Friday in the eastern province of Logar,
after an armored sports utility vehicle was seen driving into a
Taliban-held area.


      In a telephone interview Sunday with The Associated Press,
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the pair drove into an
area under insurgent control, prompting a brief gunfight in which
one American was killed and the other was captured. He said both
were taken to a "safe area" and "are in the hands of the
Taliban."


      Mujahid did not mention any offer to exchange the pair for
Taliban prisoners. A local Afghan official said the Taliban sent a
message through intermediaries offering to hand over the body in
exchange for jailed insurgents.


      Abdul Wali, the deputy head of the provincial governing council,
said local authorities responded by saying, "Let's talk about the
one that is still alive." The insurgents said they would have to
talk to superiors before making any deal.


      Hundreds of posters of the two missing sailors have been hung at
checkpoints throughout Logar province where NATO troops are
stopping vehicles, searching people, peering inside windows and
searching trunks.


      The posters, with photographs of the missing sailors, state:
"This American troop is missing. He was last seen in a white Land
Cruiser vehicle. If you have any information about this solider,
kindly contact the Logar Joint Coordination Center," run by
coalition and Afghan forces. A phone number is listed along with
information about a $20,000 reward being offered for information
leading to their location.


      The photographs show one clean-shaven sailor wearing a soft cap
and another with short-cropped hair, wearing a blue civilian shirt
and a white undershirt.


      "Our latest, accurate information reports are that they are
still in the area," said Din Mohammed Darwesh, spokesman for the
provincial governor of Logar.


      He said the governor's office was upset because the two
Americans left their base without notifying Afghan security forces
in Logar.


      "This was an abnormal situation," Darwesh said.


      NATO officials have offered no clear explanation why the sailors
were in Logar. The two left their compound in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, Friday afternoon but never returned, NATO said in a
statement.


      The visiting chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm.
Mike Mullen, told reporters Sunday that he didn't have all the
details, but "from what I know right now, this is an unusual
circumstance."


      Mullen said he could not comment on the Taliban claim that one
American was killed and the other was captured. He says the U.S. is
doing all it can to "return to American hands anybody who has been
captured or killed."


      "There's a tremendous amount of effort going on to find them,
to search, and beyond that I can't discuss any additional details
at this time. "It serves to remind of the challenges that we have
and also the service and sacrifice that so many make, but that's
really all I can talk about."


      Earlier Sunday, Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told the AP that
he had no information about U.S. sailors in Taliban hands. He said
he would look into the reports. He claimed responsibility in a
subsequent conversation.


      That suggested that the Friday attack was a spur-of-the-moment
move and that the militants are trying to figure out what to do
about it.


      A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the event, confirmed the two were Navy
personnel, but would not identify their unit to avoid jeopardizing
search operations.


      Samer Gul, the chief of Logar's Charkh district, said a
four-wheel drive armored sports utility vehicle was seen Friday
night by a guard working for the district chief's office. The guard
tried to flag down the vehicle, carrying a driver and a passenger,
but it kept going, Gul said.


      "They stopped in the main bazaar of Charkh district. The
Taliban saw them in the bazaar," Gul said. "They didn't touch
them in the bazaar, but notified other Taliban that a four-wheel
vehicle was coming their way."


      The second group of Taliban tried to stop the vehicle, but when
it didn't, insurgents opened fire and the occupants in the vehicle
shot back, he said.


      Gul said there is a well-paved road that leads into the Taliban
area and suggested the Americans may have mistaken that for the
main highway - which is much older and more dilapidated


      The only U.S. service member known to be in Taliban captivity is
Spc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, who disappeared June 30, 2009,
in Paktika province. That area is heavily infiltrated by the
Haqqani network, which has deep links to al-Qaida. He has since
appeared on videos posted on Taliban websites confirming his
captivity.


      New York Times reporter David Rohde was also kidnapped in Logar
province while trying to make contact with a Taliban commander. He
and an Afghan colleague escaped in June 2009 after seven months in
captivity, most of it spent in Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.


      Also, Saturday night in Logar, Afghan and coalition security
forces detained two suspected insurgents in a raid, NATO said
Sunday. It was unclear whether the operation was directly tied to
the search for the two missing sailors.


      In the northeast, meanwhile, insurgents recaptured a remote
district of Nuristan province that has bounced between government
and Taliban control in recent months.


      Afghan police retreated from Barg-e-Matal before dawn Sunday
after days of heavy fighting in which at least five officers were
killed, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.


      Separately, NATO said Sunday that coalition forces mistakenly
killed a civilian Friday night in eastern Kunar province. The
incident happened when NATO forces - responding to intelligence
reports of an imminent attack - fired mortars at an area from which
insurgents had launched rocket-propelled grenades at a combat
outpost in recent days, according to a NATO statement. Residents
later said that one civilian was killed by the mortars and three
wounded. The incident is being investigated, NATO said.

Gallery

Two Twin Cities soldiers killed in Afghanistan

The Taliban have offered to exchange
the body of a U.S. Navy sailor they said was killed in an ambush
two days ago in exchange for insurgent prisoners, an Afghan
official said Sunday.

Taliban claim capture of US sailor, killing of 2nd

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