Now an Elite Military Team is Also Missing in Afghanistan

Rumsfeld must be so proud of himself, too.

U.S. forces desperately scoured rugged Afghan mountains Friday for an elite American military team missing in the same area where a U.S. helicopter was shot down.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed militants captured one of the men.

In central Afghanistan, Taliban rebels kidnapped and killed Afghan nine tribal leaders and sent a boy to offer to exchange the bodies for those of dead militants, an official said. The tribal leaders were among 25 people killed in three days of fighting in Uruzgan province — yet another troubling sign for a nation hit by an upswing in violence as September elections near.

The loss of the American military team in the remote eastern mountains worsened the already stinging blow suffered by the U.S. military after 16 troops were killed Tuesday aboard the MH-47 Chinook chopper.