Friday, October 22, 2010

British TV reports Bergdahl is alive

Report says soldier escaped and was recaptured


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

Nearly 16 months after U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl was captured by Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, a news report from the U.K. is stating that he is still alive.

Sky News television reported Thursday, based on a Taliban source involved in efforts to release the soldier, that Bergdahl was being held in a remote area of Pakistan.

The source told Sky that Bergdahl had been seen nine days ago and that he was "safe."

Bergdahl, a native of the Hailey area, was taken captive in June 2009. Three videos of him have been released on the Internet by his captors, the latest in April.

The recent report says that earlier Taliban reports that the soldier had converted to Islam were unfounded.

"Our Taliban contact said the serviceman had managed to escape from his captors for 10 days," wrote Alex Crawford, an Asian correspondent for Sky News. "He survived in the remote mountain area by sleeping rough before being spotted by members of the Kuchi tribe and being handed back to his kidnappers."

The report states that Bergdahl was in good health.

The Taliban source insisted Bergdahl's captors were not Pakistanis or Afghans, but "international," describing them as al-Qaida.

Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com




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