Local News | NATO officials confirm Newlove was taken captive by insurgents | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | NATO officials confirm Newlove was taken captive by insurgents | Seattle Times Newspaper:

Officials previously had not confirmed Newlove ever had been taken captive.

Newlove's body and the body of Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley were recovered last week.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Blotz is scheduled to make an announcement at a news conference scheduled Sunday in Kabul about the insurgents who carried out the killings. Newlove, 25, and McNeley, 30, from Colorado, left Kabul July 23 in an armored sport-utility vehicle.

The missing sailors were the target of a huge search by Afghan and international forces in an area of Logar Province some 60 miles south of Kabul. Afghan officials in the province told The Associated Press the two sailors ventured into the Charkh District of Logar Province, an area that was a Taliban stronghold, and were attacked.

On July 25, in a message posted on a website, the Taliban claimed to have captured one U.S. serviceman in Logar Province and killed another in a firefight. That report never was confirmed by NATO officials.

McNeley's body was recovered July 25, and Newlove's body was found July 28.