Missing British soldier found dead

KABUL soldier who went missing two days ago was found dead yesterday, ISAF said in a statement sent to Pajhwok Afghan News.

ISAF has not disclosed the identity of the soldier, but the UK Defence Ministry announced late Monday that the missing soldier was British.

The Taliban said Monday that they had captured the solider in Nad Ali district of Helmand province. In a statement Tuesday, the Taliban said they had killed him because American and British troops had started a search operation in the area.

The foreign forces had started searching the houses of local residents, killing and arresting many locals, Taliban spokesman Qari Yusouf Ahmadi said in Tuesday’s statement.

According to him, they killed the soldier in line with the Article 13 of their code of conduct, which requires barring or disrupting the operation of foreign forces.

Article 13 says: “If the Taliban seize any hostages from the opposition during war and face any risk while taking them to their areas of control or cannot carry them there, the captors can kill them.”

The UK has around 10000 troops in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province. Since 2001, 373 of its soldiers have been killed.

According to another ISAF statement, one soldier was killed in a bomb blast in the troubled south on Monday.

ISAF has not yet disclosed the identity of that soldier, but the Australian Defence Ministry has announced that an Australian soldier was killed in Uruzgan.

Australia has 1550 troops in the southern Uruzgan province, and 28 Australian soldiers have been killed so far.

The deaths of these soldiers take the death toll of foreign soldiers to 286 this year.

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