WHy not? I would think the Special forces were given the ok to go after these creeps and they know fully well how to obtain intelligence etc. to get the job done.
If the taliban were seen leaving the area and or before or both...which apparently they were...then tracking them would not be an issue for special forces.....even if they were not seen...money talks in Afghanistan.
We may have struck an area where we thought those responsible were, but there's just NO way we could know well enough to justify these statements coming out of the Pentagon.