1 of 4 missing Navy SEALs rescued in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- US forces rescued a member of a special-operations reconnaissance team in the rugged mountains of northeastern Afghanistan yesterday, five days after the group disappeared amid hostile fire, according to a US defense official.

The official said the search continued for three other members of the team in Konar Province, near Pakistan. All four men are Navy SEALs, he said.

The rescued service member was taken to a US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for treatment of injuries, according to the US defense official. No other details were given.

Also yesterday, gunmen killed a member of Afghanistan's influential Council of Clerics who was a prominent supporter of President Hamid Karzai. The cleric, Maulvi Mohammad Nabi Masah, was driving home from his office in Kandahar when unknown gunmen on motorcycles attacked him.

Fighters linked to the ousted Taliban government have launched a campaign of violence while vowing to disrupt parliamentary elections scheduled for September. Since the start of spring, the insurgents have carried out near-daily bombings and ambushes targeting pro-government tribal leaders and clerics, government employees, aid workers, and US and Afghan forces throughout southern and eastern Afghanistan.

US and Afghan forces have been aggressively targeting the militants in their hide-outs, prompting a series of fierce battles in which more than 300 insurgents have been killed.

US forces continued their search for fighters in the mountains east of Kandahar yesterday.

Forty-five US soldiers have died since April -- 25 of them killed in combat -- in addition to scores of Afghan forces.

The Navy SEAL rescued in Konar was recovered by US forces participating in a massive hunt that began after officials lost contact with the team Tuesday. Shortly afterward, a special-operations helicopter sent to assist them crashed near its intended landing site, killing all 16 service members on board. Military officials say they think the helicopter was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade.

Few other details were known about the search effort because defense officials remain reluctant to discuss it out of concern about compromising the ongoing operation.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, called news organizations and asserted that 25 civilians had died in an airstrike on a compound. US military officials have reported conducting an airstrike only on a suspected insurgent compound on Friday. US military officials have said they are still assessing damage at the site.

The spokesman has also asserted that Taliban insurgents captured a member of the reconnaissance team and killed seven more. US military officials say they have no evidence to support the assertions.

It remained unclear yesterday who fired on the US troops in Konar. According to military officials, the reconnaissance team had been engaged in Operation Red Wing, a mission targeting Al Qaeda fighters in the region.

In addition to Al Qaeda fighters, insurgents linked to the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a fugitive former Afghan official, are reportedly operating in the area.

Despite the increasing violence, Afghan officials have said they are determined to hold successful parliamentary elections Sept. 18. The vote is the next major step on Afghanistan's rocky path to democratic rule and political stability.