At least 25 hurt in U.S. troop search in Afghanistan

By Sharafuddin Sharafyar

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search on Friday for two missing U.S. paratroopers in western Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said.

The Taliban said the two missing soldiers were dead and it had recovered their bodies.

A statement by the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said more than 25 troops were wounded during a search and rescue mission.

Lieutenant Darin Russell, a spokesman for NATO forces, said the troops were wounded "by insurgent activity". He declined to give further details of the incident, which he said was under investigation.

He was unable to say how many of the wounded were NATO troops and how many were Afghans, or whether any of them had been killed.

The chief of police in Badghis province in western Afghanistan, Abdul Jabar, said NATO aircraft had struck their own troops during the search and that several Americans had died in the "friendly fire" air strike.

NATO announced earlier on Friday that two U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division had gone missing on Wednesday while delivering supplies.

Reports of missing troops in Afghanistan are extremely rare and would automatically trigger a large-scale military response.