KABUL, July 1: US forces searched on Friday for a small reconnaissance team which has been missing since a helicopter sent in to extract them was shot down in Afghanistan, as the Taliban claimed they had captured a US soldier.

Ground troops combed a mountainous, wooded area of militant-infested Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan around the crash site to find their comrades, US spokesman Lt-Col Jerry O’Hara said.

Sixteen personnel, including eight US Navy SEALs, were killed when their MH-47 Chinook crashed after being hit by what is believed to be a rocket propelled grenade on Tuesday. The ousted Taliban have claimed responsibility.

“All available assets are being used to find our missing,” O’Hara told AFP.

He said security reasons prevented him from disclosing how many personnel were in the recce team or the number of US troops involved in the search operation.

“The helicopter went in to lift them (the reconnaissance team) out of that area. We have not located them as of yet, but we are doing active patrolling to find our missing US service members,” the spokesman added.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said on Friday that the the rebels were holding a US serviceman and that they had killed seven American “spies” in the area. Earlier this week the militia said the dead men were Afghans.

“Our mujahideen arrested one American soldier alive in the area,” he told AFP by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

“They have not started interrogating him, that is why I cannot tell you what his name is and what rank and which department he comes from.”

Hakimi said they had footage of an exchange of fire with the so-called spies and of the captured American, which would be displayed on the rebels’ website www.alamara.net “tomorrow or the day after”.—AFP