Four terror suspects escape in Afghanistan

“The location and disposition of the service member’s remains indicate he died while fighting off enemy terrorists on or about June 28,” the statement said.

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts repeatedly denied Hakimi’s claims.

“There have been claims of being dropped on a mountain wearing red clothes, there have been claims of being beheaded,” he said. But “there was no indication supporting the claims. ... This individual was never in custody, he was never defamed or disgraced.”

He said the injuries on the commando’s body were consistent with “a firefight, a combat operation with small arms fire, RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) rounds.”

Hakimi never offered proof to back up his claim that the rebels were holding the commando, or that they had killed him. Information from Hakimi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue, and his exact tie to the Taliban leadership cannot be independently verified.

Body found near crash site
The Navy SEAL team disappeared after a special forces helicopter carrying reinforcements to a mountainous area in eastern Kunar province was shot down June 28, killing all 16 Americans on board, the deadliest single attack on the U.S. military since the war here began in 2001.

Yonts said the commando’s body was found near the chopper crash site in an area “that we had looked over before, but where his body was located was hard to find.”

His name was not immediately released, pending notification of family.

The single surviving commando was saved from the militants by an Afghan shepherd, Gulab, who found him wounded in the mountains and took him to his home, according to this week’s Time magazine.

Despite demands from the rebels to hand over the American, Gulab and his neighbors refused to give him up because of a tribal honor code that bars them from refusing sanctuary to a guest, Time reported. The shepherd later escorted the American to the nearest U.S. base in the town of Asadabad.

U.S. military officials in Kabul have declined to comment on how the commando was rescued.

Kunar province has long been a hotbed of militant activity and a haven for fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is wanted by the United States. U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters also were in the region. Osama bin Laden was not said to be there — though he is believed to be somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

The region’s wooded mountains are popular with militants because they are easy to infiltrate from neighboring Pakistan and have plenty of places to hide.

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