KABUL, Afghanistan —New details emerged Monday about
the devastating helicopter crash that killed 30 U.S. service members
including at least 22 elite Navy SEALs.
The chopper, carrying the SEALs as well as seven
Afghan commandos and other U.S. troops, was downed early Saturday as it
arrived to answer a call for help from another elite force, the Western
military said publicly for the first time.
Previous reports had been contradictory about whether
the Chinook helicopter carrying the SEALs was arriving or departing the
scene in Afghanistan’s Wardak province. The chopper was apparently
downed by insurgent fire.
A statement from NATO’s International Security
Assistance Force, the first detailed public accounting of the incident,
said the operation “began as a security search for a Taliban leader
responsible for insurgent operations in the nearby Tangi Valley.”
The initial team on the ground, not the SEALs,
spotted insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades in the area and
engaged them, and at about the same time issued a call for help. The
statement did not identify the original team on the ground. Some
published reports have said it was a unit of Army Rangers.
“These additional personnel were inbound to the scene
when the CH-47 carrying them crashed, killing all on board,” the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization force said in a statement. It said the
troops already on the ground, backed by forces from a nearby Western
base, then moved in to secure the scene.
The statement identified those aboard as five air
crew members and 25 personnel from the Special Operations command.
Previous reports have said those attached to the SEALs force included a
civilian interpreter and a dog handler.
———
(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
