NEW DELHI (AFP) - – The United States on Monday voiced concern and outrage over an American soldier held by Taliban militants in Afghanistan, vowing everything possible is being done to free him.
"We are very concerned about the kidnapping of our American soldier and are working to do all we can to obtain his safe release," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a press conference in New Delhi when asked about the abduction of 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl.
The Taliban, which has stepped up its insurgency in Afghanistan, released a video over the weekend of a visibly shaken captive Bergdahl, who was snatched by the Islamist militants in Afghanistan late last month.
"Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier. And I also would say my personal reaction was one of disgust at the exploitation of this young man," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Washington.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the top US military officer, said: "We're doing absolutely everything we can to get him back."
In the 28-minute clip posted online, the soldier identified by the Pentagon on Sunday as Bergdahl sits on the floor in traditional pale grey Afghan clothing and pleads for US troops to leave the war-torn nation.
The shaven-headed man, who sports a fledgling beard and appears nervous and frightened, answers questions in English, occasionally choking back sobs as he tells his captors he is scared and wants to see his family.
"I deplore the exploitation of him," said Mullen, who returned on Saturday from a regional tour that included a stop in Afghanistan. "Having been with the forces in fact who are conducting the operations to recover him or to find him is -- they are extensive, vast. They're on it 24/7. And we're doing absolutely everything we can to get him back."
Clinton condemned Bergdahl's capture in an interview she gave earlier to US television network ABC while visiting India.
"It's just outrageous. It's a real sign of desperation and inappropriate criminal behavior on the parts of these terrorist groups," Clinton told ABC. "So we are going to do everything we can to get him."
A US military spokesperson in Kabul had earlier confirmed that the man in the video was the same soldier who went missing from his base in southeastern Paktika province on June 30, and condemned the video as "propaganda."
Hundreds of US soldiers and troops from other nations have been killed in Afghanistan battling the widening Taliban-led insurgency.
But the abduction is believed to be the first time militants have snatched an American soldier in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
In the video, Bergdahl said he was trailing a patrol when he was captured, which contradicts earlier US military accounts that said the soldier had left his base at night with Afghan soldiers when he was taken by the militants.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to confirm the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture and said describing efforts to locate him was "not in the individual's best interests or our interests in trying to bring him back to safety."
Eating food and drinking green tea as he sits in front of a table, Bergdahl says the Taliban insurgents are "really treating me like a guest," but becomes distraught and emotional when talking about his family.
"I'm afraid that I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again, I'll never be able to hug them," he says.
"I'm scared... scared about not being able to go home. It's very unnerving to be a prisoner," he adds.
A commander of the Taliban's Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani faction on July 2 claimed the abduction.
The US Department of Defense said in its statement Sunday that Bergdahl -- who is a member of an infantry division based in Fort Richardson, Alaska -- was officially declared "Missing-Captured" on July 3, a day after the BBC first reported him missing.
Some 57,000 US troops are currently on the ground in Afghanistan alongside 33,000 troops from nearly 40 nations operating under a NATO-led force.
An additional 11,000 US forces are due in Afghanistan by the end of the year as part of 21,000 fresh troop reinforcements President Barack Obama has dispatched to the country.
"This is a very difficult battle, and this is one we feel must be waged," Clinton told reporters here when asked about a surge in US troop losses and other difficulties.
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