KABUL, Afghanistan — Posing an emotional new complication for the expanding U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, Islamic militants released a video of a captured American soldier whom U.S. military officials identified for the first time Sunday as Pvt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho.
The video marked the first time that militants have sought to take advantage of Bergdahl’s June 30 capture to mount a propaganda attack on President Barack Obama’s decision to escalate U.S. involvement in the war. The video also underscores the stakes for U.S. forces that have spent more than two weeks scouring eastern Afghanistan for clues to Bergdahl’s whereabouts.
The footage shows Bergdahl in apparent good condition, dressed in a traditional Afghan loose shirt and tunic, known as a shalwar khameez.
His hair is short and he has a slight stubble of beard.
Responding to prompts from his captors, Bergdahl calls for U.S. forces to be returned home and expresses his worry that he may never again see his family.
“I’m scared I won’t be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner,” he says at one point in the 28-minute recording. “I have my girlfriend who is hoping to marry. . . . I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America.”
U.S. military officials denounced the video as a violation of the laws of war.
“The Taliban are using the soldier for propaganda purposes,” said Navy Lt. Robert Carr, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “We are continuing to do everything possible to recover the soldier and are using all available assets to get him back safely and unharmed.”
Bergdahl, an Idaho native, is a member of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska. His unit is involved in counterinsurgency operations in a Taliban-infested region along the border with Pakistan.
U.S. military officials said that neither Bergdahl’s capture nor the release of the video would alter their strategy in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are trying to bolster a wobbly central government and halt an alarming decline in security.
In the video, Bergdahl says he was captured when he lagged behind on patrol. In the days following the abduction, however, U.S. military officials said he was believed to have simply walked away from his base in Paktika province.
A spokesman for the Idaho National Guard declined to identify Bergdahl’s parents and said they had asked for their privacy to be protected.
The family released a statement Sunday saying that they “hope and pray for our son’s safe return to his comrades and then to our family.”
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The helicopter crash at the Kandahar Airfield was the second in less than a week involving a Russian-made helicopter operated by a civilian contractor.
NATO did not identify the contractor involved in the latest crash or the nationality of those killed, but Russia’s Interfax news agency said the owner and operator of the helicopter was the Russian company Vertikal-T. It said the craft carried 17 passengers and three crew members. Los Angeles Times
