Success

A massive search involving aircraft and ground troops has been launched after he went missing from his base in central Helmand.

He had left the base alone in the early hours of Monday morning, a move which is described as “highly unusual”.

The soldier’s next of kin have been informed. The Taliban has told the BBC it has killed a soldier in the area.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul said a local Taliban
fighter told the BBC that insurgents had captured a foreign soldier in
the Babaji area and after a firefight the solider was killed.