WORLD BRIEFING / AFGHANISTAN

Local Taliban commanders have threatened to kill a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the American soldier, whom the U.S. military earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands.

A Taliban spokesman said the soldier would be killed unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes in Ghazni province’s Giro district and Paktika province’s Khoshamand district.

Authorities announced that a Canadian soldier was killed southwest of Kandahar, bringing to 47 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month. That makes July the war’s deadliest month for foreign troops.