An Italian reporter has gone missing while trying to talk to Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan, the Italian foreign ministry said Tuesday - shortly after the Islamists said they had captured a British journalist in a nearby region.
Italian daily La Repubblica has not heard from correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo since Sunday when he told his paper he was in the southern region of Kandahar, on the border with Pakistan.
He said he planned to try to talk to leaders of the Islamist militants who have retaken large parts of the south since US-led forces drove them from power in 2002.
Mastrogiacomo was relying on contacts he made near Kandahar during a previous trip.
La Repubblica tried in vain to get in touch with Mastrogiacomo all day Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Taliban said it had captured John Nichol, a British journalist, in the war-torn southern region of Helman to the east of Kandahar.
NATO launched a major offensive in Helmand Monday.
Other Afghan regions, including Kandahar, continued to be rocked by protests against Afghan civilian deaths in US military action.
US marines on Sunday shot dead at least 10 people during a gunfight near the eastern city of Jalalabad after a suicide attack on Saturday.
Protests erupted around the country and intensified Monday after nine civilians - five women, three children and an old man - died in a US air strike near Kabul after a post was attacked.
The Italian foreign ministry has activated its Crisis Unit and is making every effort through its Kabul embassy to find Mastrogiacomo, diplomatic sources said.
"We are trying to find out what the situation is, along with other European countries," Deputy Foreign Minister Ugo Intini said.
