KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 (UPI) -- Taliban forces may have spirited a missing U.S. soldier from Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan, ABC News reported Monday.
The U.S. broadcast network said two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl say moving the GI across the border would complicate efforts to obtain his release.
The 23-year-old soldier from Ketchum, Idaho, is the first U.S. serviceman captured since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan eight years ago. He was taken along with three Afghan soldiers June 30 in Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan.
ABC reported a person actively involved in the search says a high-level Afghan insurgent commander has claimed responsibility for capturing Bergdahl and has moved him to South Waziristan, Pakistan. U.S. forces are not allowed to operate inside Pakistan except in limited instances.
The insurgent leader, Mullah Sangeen, reportedly wants the United States to stop its aerial attacks on the region in return for Bergdahl's release.
