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SEAL killed in doctor's rescue in Afghanistan was from Pa.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has identified the Navy SEAL killed during the weekend rescue mission in Afghanistan as Petty Officer First Class Nicolas D. Checque of Monroeville, Pa., outside Pittsburgh.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has identified the Navy SEAL killed during the weekend rescue mission in Afghanistan as Petty Officer First Class Nicolas D. Checque of Monroeville, Pa., outside Pittsburgh.

A Defense Department statement says Checque, 28, died of combat-related injuries but gave no further details of the mission.

He was among members of SEAL Team Six, which freed an American doctor, Dilip Joseph, who was abducted by the Taliban.

It is the same team that killed Osama bin Laden last year, but it's unclear whether Checque was on the bin Laden mission.

An unidentified man who answered a relative's phone in Washington County, where Checque's father lives, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the family "has asked that everybody respect their privacy at this time of grief and they do not wish to be contacted." The man would not identify himself.

Officials in Afghanistan say Joseph, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was rescued in eastern Afghanistan. The military says the adviser for Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development was abducted last week along with two Afghan staff members - one is part of the medical team, the other part of the support team. Joseph has been the nonprofit's medical adviser for three years.

He was rescued after intelligence showed he was in imminent danger of injury or possible death.

In Colorado on Monday, Joseph's family extended condolences to the Checque's family.

In a statement issued by Morning Star Development and attributed to the family, Joseph's family expressed gratitude for Checque's heroism and "for the bravery of all involved in the mission."