Taliban

A British soldier was snatched and executed by the Taliban yesterday after he wandered off alone from a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan. It was the first kidnap of a British soldier in the conflict. His disappearance in an area riddled with insurgents and Improvised Explosive Devices sparked a 12-hour search with hundreds of troops and vehicles and all available helicopters. David Cameron was forced to abandon part of an unannounced visit to the country so personnel and equipment which would have been with him could be diverted to help.

The United States has stepped up face-to-face peace talks with the Taliban, holding at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany in recent days with figures believed to be close to Mullah Omar, the group's leader.

The Afghan Taliban on Monday denied they were mixed up in Al Qaeda's 9/11 plot - or that they would ever target the U.S. homeland.

The only known American soldier in Taliban captivity is training fighters in bombmaking and ambush, according to information reported Sunday from one of his captors and the Afghan intelligence agents working to free him.

Two U.S. service members went missing after driving off their base in Kabul on Friday, and the Taliban later claimed to have captured them in eastern Afghanistan, NATO officials said Saturday, the same day five U.S. troops were killed in the south.