Taliban say they beheaded missing US commando

The Taliban said they beheaded a missing US commando in eastern Afghanistan ysterday, but the Pentagon said it had no information to support the claim.

Elsewhere in the country, officials said Taliban insurgents stabbed to death a senior pro-government cleric and his wife, while the guerrillas said they had killed seven government soldiers and captured six.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the US commando was killed at 11 a.m. and his body dumped on a mountain in the eastern province of Kunar, where a four-man Navy SEAL team went missing during a clash with militants on June 28.

The US military has said two of the missing commandos were found dead on Monday, having been killed in action, while another had been rescued and one was missing.

The Taliban has said it captured the commando on June 29, but the US military has said it has no information to suggest the man was being held.

Asked about the claim that the man had been killed, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Joe Carpenter said in Washington: "We have no information to substantiate that."

Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara, a US spokesman in Afghanistan, said the military was investigating the Taliban claim, but added: "We are still conducting a search hoping our missing service member is alive as we have no proof telling us otherwise."

A US helicopter sent to aid the SEALs was shot down the same day they went missing, killing all 16 troops aboard, the heaviest losses for US forces in a single combat operation since they overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

Hakimi had said earlier yesterday the man was a commando officer and would be killed in two or three days after his interrogation about US plans and tactics was concluded.