US Afghan rescue team missing

A small team of US soldiers was missing in the same mountains in eastern Afghanistan where a Special Forces helicopter was shot down earlier this week, a US military spokesman said today.

The MH-47 Chinook helicopter, carrying 16 soldiers, all of whom died in the crash, had gone into the mountains on Tuesday to 8216;8216;extract the soldiers8217;8217;. The ground team has been missing ever since the chopper was downed, US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O8217;Hara said.

Meanwhile, a purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed rebels had captured a US soldier near the town of Asadabad, close to the Pakistan border.