Story highlights There was a firefight on the ground in which seven enemy fighters were killed

The university has become a target of Taliban-linked insurgents in recent weeks

Washington (CNN) A few days after an American and Australian were kidnapped from American University in Kabul last month, US Special Operations Forces from SEAL Team 6 attempted to rescue them but failed to find them at the location they went to, according to three administration officials. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said President Barack Obama, acting on a recommendation from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, authorized the August mission to rescue the two civilian hostages in an unspecified area of Afghanistan. Cook said no U.S. personnel or civilians were injured and added that he would not provide any more details “in order to protect the safety of hostages and operational security.”

According to defense officials, the mission was delayed one day because of questions about the intelligence and whether the hostages, an American and an Australian who worked at the American University of Afghanistan, were there. The hostages were not there, but a group of militants was, leading to a firefight in which seven militants were killed, officials said.
United States Navy SEALs, by high altitude parachuting, fail in a rescue attempt after the team does not find the American and Australian hostages who were kidnapped in Kabul last month.