The remains of one of two US sailors who went missing in Afghanistan last week have been found in the east of the country, the NATO-led force said on Tuesday, and troops were still searching for the second man. The two men, serving with the US Navy, went missing on Friday after failing to return in a vehicle they had taken from their compound in Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Saturday. On Sunday, the Taliban said they were holding prisoner one of the two sailors who had strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents just south of the capital, and that the other had been killed. For the first time on Tuesday, ISAF confirmed that one of the sailors was dead. “Afghan and coalition forces recovered the remains of a missing ISAF service member Sunday in eastern Afghanistan after an extensive search,” the alliance said in a statement. An ISAF spokesman, US Major Steven Cole, confirmed the sailor had been killed and his remains repatriated to the US. He did not give any further details on where or how the remains were found and described the second sailor's condition as “unknown status”. ISAF scrambled helicopters and planes to look for the pair after they went missing, but officials have declined to give anything but scant details since, prompting speculation that the two had been acting outside the chain of command. Foreign troops also set up road checkpoints around the country, stopping and searching cars for any information on the two sailors.
