Posted on 06/30/2005 7:00:35 PM PDT by neverdem
KABUL, Afghanistan, June30 - United States and Afghan troops today reached the site of a downed military helicopter that crashed in a mountainous area this week, the United States military announced. The military said Wednesday that the aircrft appeared to have been brought down by hostile fire.
The Chinook helicopter was carrying 17 people, including 8 Navy Seal commandos and other Special Operations troops, members of a so-called quick reaction force that had been sent after radio calls from troops on the ground saying they were in combat with insurgents, according to a military official in Washington.
There was no word on the fate of those aboard the helicopter, but a Pentagon official said Wednesday that many or all were likely to have perished.If all those aboard were killed, the crash on Tuesday would represent the biggest single combat loss in Afghanistan since the American-led invasion ousted the Taliban government and its Qaeda allies in 2001.
The crash occurred in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan and has for three years been one of the provinces most troubled by insurgent activity. The fighting there comes amid a sharp increase in violence in Afghanistan, much of it led by Taliban supporters who have emerged after the winter with unexpected numbers and ferocity.
Since March insurgents have engaged in large-scale firefights with American and Afghan forces in their traditional mountain hold-outs, as well as increased terrorist attacks like roadside bombs, suicide attacks and political assassinations.
A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, said this week that Taliban forces were responsible for the attack and that the Chinook had been downed by a rocket.
Fighting began when American troops were investigating intelligence that a group of up to 100 Taliban were in an area west of the provincial capital of Asadabad on Tuesday morning, a...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What a shame. News sources also say that the fate of those that called for the help is also unknown, so the toll could actually be higher.
War is hell. God bless the troops!
Tonights news on PBS had a Army colonel in Afghanistan, announce that all 16 men where found, KIAed. The 17th man
did not board the fated chopper but another one by mistake.
So all those on the Chinook perished.
What can one say other then prayers go out to all their loved ones, and we shall not forget their sacrifice. They died serving their country with honor.
Prayers UP!!!
There were reports earlier of so many SEALs and site purported to show their execution.No way.Some shit with a launcher has unleashed upon hisself and hisown horrors unless he has no fixed address.So of course we will do nothing to avenge(LOL)This plays into something most grim.I cannot equate Our loss to anything which will come from it.I CANNOT assume the injury to our finest and allow "understanding" for a rocket which could have been toward Fighters,Nurses,APnews,Anyone.Indescriminate rocket lucky(?) shot will rain hell..
There is no way to bring back our Finest.Grief torn turns to fear to hatred.There is no dialogue nor reasoning with someone who thinks they work for God and have been purmutated to a point that killing any number of believers and non-believers is acceptable.The Cou'-de is that it is directed against us.Also that so many of Our Finest are taken out or injured by clueless outsiders.This will not go on even beyond demrat thinktanks.Something will happen
I hate the New York Times.
Not only that, but look at how they use the term "insurgents" to describe the Taliban.
Some people at this paper really need to be investigated for sedition.
Nothing wrong with using "so-called" to call attention to a term that may not be familiar to many readers. And insurgents is what the Taliban are.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the New York Times, but this is a stretch.
I doubt "quick response team" needs to be defined, but let's say it does. Let's take some term--firefighter, for example--and assume that what a firefighter does is obscure enough to need a clarificiation in a news piece.
"Last night, a fire broke out at 123 XYZ Lane. Firefighters, a group of persons equipped and trained to contain and extinguish fires, extinguished the blaze within 15 minutes."
Contrast that to the possibility of: "'So-called' firefighters extinguished the blaze within 15 minutes." If a person who extinguishes a fire is not a firefighter, then why would so-called be applicable? There are no so-called firefighters: one is either a firefighter or is not a firefighter.
Likewise, if a quick reaction team is used to speedily deploy to emergency areas, would they be a so-called quick reaction team? Of course not. In this instance, the "so-called" is used to subtly denigrate the work of the QRT who had to get to this downed helicopter.
As for the Taliban, they are the Taliban. We are well familiar with who they are. There is no reason, on the surface, to replace the term Taliban with insurgents. Now, if we look at how TNYT has treated what they term an insurgency in Iraq, the depiction has been that they are native Iraqis fighting to free their country from oppressive foreign invaders, mainly us. The grouping of the Taliban with the Iraqi terrorists under the term insurgents creates a picture that there is a coordinated regionwide resistence to the US military: that we're in a quagmire, basically.
Nothing is being stretched, except the usual stretching of the truth at TNYT.
True.We see recently there are possible survivirors.Are the rescuuers led into trap?There was more although I've not watched TV recently and of course the networks would display openly any tactical response.There is much more to come out of this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.