WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed the capture of a US soldier by Taliban forces in Afghanistan as "outrageous" and vowed to do "everything we can" to free him, in an interview aired Monday.
"We are attempting to do everything we can to locate him and free him," Clinton, on a visit to India, told US television network ABC in New Delhi..
The Taliban, whose resurgence in Afghanistan has led to heightened unrest in the country, released a video over the weekend of a visibly-shaken captive US soldier who was snatched by the Islamist militants in Afghanistan late last month.
In the 28-minute clip posted online at the weekend, the soldier identified by the Pentagon on Sunday as 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe R. Bergdahl sits on the floor in traditional pale grey Afghan clothing and pleads for US troops to leave the war-torn nation.
The shaven-headed young man, who sports a fledgling beard and appears nervous and frightened, answers questions in English, occasionally choking back sobs as he tells his captors he is scared and wants to see his family.
"I mean it's just outrageous. It's a real sign of desperation and inappropriate criminal behavior on the parts of these terrorist groups," Clinton said.
"So we are going to do everything we can to get him."
A US military spokesman in Kabul had earlier confirmed that the man in the video was the same soldier who went missing from his base in southeastern Paktika province on June 30, and condemned the video as "propaganda."
Hundreds of US soldiers and troops from other nations have been killed in Afghanistan battling the widening Taliban-led insurgency.
But the June 30 abduction is believed to be the first time militants have snatched an American soldier in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
Eating food and drinking green tea as he sits in front of a table, Bergdahl says the Taliban insurgents are "really treating me like a guest," but becomes distraught and emotional when talking about his family.
"I'm afraid that I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again, I'll never be able to hug them," he says.
"I'm scared... scared about not being able to go home. It's very unnerving to be a prisoner," he adds.
A commander of the Taliban's Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani faction on July 2 claimed the abduction.
The US Department of Defense said in its statement Sunday that Bergdahl -- who is a member of an infantry division based Fort Richardson, Alaska -- was officially declared "Missing-Captured" on July 3.
Some 57,000 US troops are currently on the ground in Afghanistan alongside 33,000 troops from nearly 40 nations operating under a NATO-led force.
An additional 11,000 US troops are due in Afghanistan by the end of the year as part of a dispatch of 21,000 Americans to the country ordered by President Barack Obama.
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Comment: The U.S. should get the hell out of Afghanistan now!
Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka: Peta
Sacramento, California,Aztlan
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