ISLAMABAD－Taliban leaders said on Sunday they are not holding Mark R. Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who disappeared in Afghanistan in late January.

"We don't have any information about the missing American," Sohail Shaheen, Taliban's political spokesman, said in a message.

A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said on condition of anonymity that the Taliban have notified US officials they are not holding Frerichs, "formally and informally".

Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban in February to allow the US and NATO countries to withdraw their troops and end decades of war, asked for Frerichs' release during his meetings last week in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office.

In a statement on late Saturday by the US embassy in Kabul, Khalilzad also sought Pakistan's help in locating Frerichs. He arrived in Islamabad on Friday from Doha before heading next door to India in his pursuit of a lasting peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have found a haven since their overthrow in 2001 by the US-led coalition, has worked with the US to get a peace deal with the Taliban.

Unusual step

Earlier last week the FBI took the unusual step of putting out a poster with Frerichs' picture on it seeking information into his disappearance and whereabouts, something they have not done in previous incidents where the Taliban have taken hostages.

Khalilzad's latest trip to the region, according to a US State Department announcement, includes Doha, Islamabad and New Delhi but not Kabul, where political turmoil has stymied progress on the deal's next and critical phase of intra-Afghan talks.

However, the US and NATO have started their troop withdrawal, which will be completed by next year if the Taliban keep to their promise in the deal to fight terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State and guarantee Afghan territory is not used again to attack the US or its allies.

In another development in the northern part of Afghanistan, four security force members were killed and seven others missing, presumably captured by Taliban militants, during clashes in Balkh province on Saturday night, local police said on Sunday.

"Armed Taliban militants stormed security checkpoints in Alam Khel locality of Balkh district of Balkh province on Saturday night, triggering clashes between security forces manning the posts and the attackers," provincial police spokesman Adel Shah Adel said. The police official said militants also sustained casualties, going by bloodstains on the clash site.

A joint army and police unit visited the site of the attack on early Sunday to assess the situation there, Adel said.

Agencies - Xinhua

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