ISAF Soldier Goes Missing in Afghanistan

An ISAF soldier has gone missing in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said on Thursday, more than three years after an American army sergeant was taken prisoner by the Taliban.

The Georgian soldier is believed to be the first soldier from the NATO-led mission to have gone missing since Bowe Bergdahl, now thought to be 26, was taken on June 30, 2009 in the southeastern province of Paktika.

It is not known if the Georgian soldier, who went missing on Wednesday, is the victim of a kidnapping.

"We can confirm that an ISAF service member from Georgia is missing," an ISAF spokesman, told AFP.

"He was based in southern Afghanistan. We are gathering the information to find out what happened. There are active research operations to find him," the spokesman added.

Georgia has 1,570 troops serving in Afghanistan, making the small Caucasus country of 4.5 million people the largest non-NATO contributor to the mission in Afghanistan, according to the country's defence ministry.

Eighteen Georgian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan over the past three years.

There are presently around 100,000 U.S.-led NATO troops fighting a decade-long Taliban led insurgency in Afghanistan.

Despite the stubborn insurgency, war-weary international forces are seeking to hand control of security to Afghan forces by withdrawing their combat troops by the end of 2014.