Missing US Sailor Found Dead in Afghanistan

(July 27) -- NATO has recovered the body of one of the two U.S. servicemen who disappeared in Afghanistan last week, the international force said today, and a search continues for his comrade who's believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban.

The grisly discovery comes as NATO is already mired in controversies over a disputed rocket attack that Afghan officials say killed 52 civilians, and a flurry of leaked documents that reveal a pattern of under-reported civilian deaths and other mistakes in the 9-year-old Afghan war.

The two U.S. sailors disappeared Friday. They were last seen leaving their base on the outskirts of Kabul, Camp Julien, which houses NATO's counterinsurgency academy. They were driving an armored SUV, and officials told The Washington Post they may have taken a wrong turn and ended up in dangerous, Taliban-held Logar province south of the Afghan capital. The purpose of their drive is unclear, and the paper quoted Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying their trip appeared to be an "unusual circumstance."

NATO launched a search for the men, scrambling helicopters and sending soldiers door-to-door over the weekend in Logar, searching homes and handing out hundreds of fliers with photos of the missing servicemen. The fliers announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to them, Al-Jazeera reported.

On Sunday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the men had driven into insurgent-controlled territory, and got into a gunbattle with its fighters. One of the sailors was killed and the other was taken captive and was being held in a "safe place" where he wouldn't be found, he told several news outlets.

A local Afghan official in Logar province, Abdul Wali, also told The Associated Press that the Taliban sent a message through intermediaries offering to hand over the body of the dead sailor in exchange for jailed insurgents.

NATO issued a statement today saying the body was found two days ago, but didn't give details on where or how it was discovered. "Afghan and coalition forces recovered the remains of a missing ISAF service member Sunday in eastern Afghanistan after an extensive search," it said.

While NATO has not identified the sailors by name, the California family of Petty Officer 2nd-class Justin McNeley has identified him as the slain sailor. His father, Deputy Fire Marshal George McNeley in the city of Encinitas in northern San Diego County, sent an e-mail to co-workers on Monday afternoon saying the Navy had informed him that his son had been killed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

And a state lawmaker in Colorado, Rep. Jim Kerr, told The Denver Post that his nephew, 30-year-old Justin McNeley, was the sailor killed. Kerr said McNeley, a father of two, was due to return to the U.S. next month.

"He was young, full of energy, a good kid and a patriot defending his country," Kerr told the paper.

NATO said the search would continue for the other sailor. "We will continue this effort until our service member is recovered. ISAF holds the captors accountable for the safety and proper treatment of our missing service member," its statement said.

Another Afghan official, an unnamed spokesman for Logar's provincial governor, told the BBC today that tribal elders and religious leaders are working as intermediaries in negotiations between the Taliban and NATO, over the remaining captured sailor's fate. Officials have succeeded in persuading the Taliban to keep him in Logar, rather than handing him over to other Taliban fighters in other parts of the country, the BBC said.

At least one other U.S. service member is also believed to be held by the Taliban. Idaho native Spc. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and has since appeared in Taliban videos recorded in captivity and posted on the Internet. His fate and whereabouts are unclear, though the latest video of him was released in April.

The two sailors disappeared on the same day as an unrelated incident in southern Afghanistan, where Afghan officials – including President Hamid Karzai – say 52 civilians were killed when a rocket fired by NATO forces slammed into a house where women and children had taken refuge from nearby fighting. U.S. officials have disputed their version of events.

Afghan witnesses told The New York Times that women and children from eight families were crowded into a house in the village of Rigi, when two powerful explosions went off as military aircraft flew overhead. One man said he pulled the bodies of 17 children and seven women from the rubble. Another said U.S. forces came the next day and explained that they'd fired because they spotted a man with a weapon.

Karzai condemned the attack as "both morally and humanly unacceptable."

U.S. officials have said they're investigating the Rigi incident, but that "any speculation at this point of an alleged civilian casualty in Rigi Village is completely unfounded," CNN quoted NATO spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith as saying.

If confirmed, the attack could be one of the deadliest for civilians in the whole Afghan war.