KABUL, Afghanistan - A second U.S. Navy sailor who went missing in a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan was found dead and his body recovered, a senior U.S. military official and Afghan officials said Thursday.
The family of Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, a 25-year-old from the Seattle area, had been notified of his death, the U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Family members have confirmed to KING5 News that they were notified about his death on Thursday.
Newlove and Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley went missing last Friday in Logar province.
Deen Mohammad Darwish, a Logar province official, told CNN that Newlove's body was found in the Baraki Barak district of the province early on Wednesday. The sailor died of wounds he sustained from the firefight when the two sailors were captured, Darwish said. Darwish said Newlove had five gunshot wounds, including one to the head. NBC reports, however, that police in the province say they suspect the Taliban may have killed Newlove because they could not move him due to the ongoing searches for him in the area.
The chief of police of Logar province, Gen. Mustafa Mosseini, did tell CNN that coalition troops removed Newlove's body about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Mosseini said he believed the body washed downstream after rains Tuesday night.
Mohammad Rahim Amin, the local government chief in Baraki Barak district, also said coalition forces recovered a body about 5:30 p.m. and flew it by helicopter to a coalition base in Logar province, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) away.
"The coalition told our criminal police director of the district that the body belonged to the foreign soldier they were looking for," Amin said.
NATO recovered the body of McNeley -- a 30-year-old father of two from Wheatridge, Colorado -- in the area Sunday.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Kabul on Thursday that two days ago the Taliban left the "body of a dead American soldier for the U.S. forces" to recover. The Taliban said McNeley was killed in a firefight and insurgents had captured Newlove. Mujahid offered no explanation for Newlove's death.
NATO officials have not offered an explanation as to why the two service members were in such a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan.
The sailors were instructors at a counterinsurgency school for Afghan security forces, according to senior military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. The school was headquartered in Kabul and had classrooms outside the capital, but they were never assigned anywhere near where McNeley's body was recovered, officials said.
Mosseini noted in the past several days, the Taliban were being pressured by coalition forces in the area.
"The security was being tightened," Mosseini said. "Searches continued from both air and the ground. Militants were moving into Pakistan."
Until the two sailors were captured, the only other American service member in Taliban captivity was Spc. Bowe Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho. Bergdahl disappeared on June 30, 2009, also from eastern Afghanistan. NewsChannel 7 spoke with NBC's Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski who said the two dead sailors "were nowhere near where Bergdahl was grabbed."
Now that the two American sailors are confirmed dead, Bergdahl is once again the only American known to be in captivity, and he is believed to be alive.
Miklaszewski who originally broke the story of Bergdahl’s disappearance doesn't think the deaths of the two sailors have any implication for the missing Idaho soldier and doesn't believe Bergdahl is being held by the same Taliban group involved in this recent case.
The Associated Press, CNN and NBC News contributed to this report.
