Taleban said on Saturday they had killed a missing American commando they claimed to have captured in eastern Afghanistan last month, but the US military said it had no information to support the claim. Elsewhere, a senior pro-government cleric and his wife were stabbed to death by Taleban insurgents in Paktika province and guerrillas captured 11 government soldiers, including a senior commander, in Helmand, government officials said.
Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the guerrillas ambushed a convoy near Helmand's Chkore mountains on Friday, killing seven government troops and capturing six, but it was not known if the incidents were the same.
Hakimi said the US commando was killed at 11 am (0630 GMT) on Saturday and his body dumped on a mountain in the eastern province of Kunar, where a four-man Navy SEAL team went missing during a clash with militants June 28.
"We killed him using a knife and chopped off his head," he said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
The US military has said two of the missing commandos were found dead on Monday, having been killed in action, while another had been rescued and one was missing.
It has said it has no information to suggest the missing man had been captured.
Asked about the Taleban claim that the man had been killed, US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara said he had no information to support it, but the military was looking into the report.
"We are still conducting a search hoping our missing service member is alive as we have no proof telling us otherwise," he said.
A US helicopter sent to aid the SEAL team was shot down, killing all 16 troops aboard, the heaviest losses for US forces in a single combat operation since they overthrew the Taleban in 2001.
Hakimi's information has often proven unreliable in the past, but he has appeared well informed about events surrounding the helicopter crash.
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