Sixteen bodies have been found at the crash site of a US military helicopter in eastern Afghanistan and some were Special Forces, a top US general said.
Lieutenant General James Conway told a Defense Department briefing that 16 bodies had been retrieved from the site where the Chinook military helicopter crashed on Tuesday west of Asadabad, a town in the insurgency-plagued eastern province of Kunar.
The Taliban militia has claimed that its fighters shot down the helicopter but US officials gave no details on the cause of the crash.
Shit.
James Emerson
This isn’t the time to get into the; “Why did we start the Iraq war before we had finished up in Afghanistan,” argument, so I’ll leave it there.
What worries me is that this is the second helicopter brought down in as many days. The rumour is that the insurgents have obtained a number of shoulder fire ground to air missiles. If that is true, we are in deep shit, and especially so in Afghanistan where our air mobility is the only reasonable way to conduct successful operations against infiltrating insurgents. That is to say in Bushspeak; “cutting ’em off at the pass.”
The presence of an insurgent air defense system in either or both Iraq and Afghanistan exponentially complicates our mission, and will most likely result in much higher casualties than we’ve suffered so far.
Two points arise.
1) Where are these extremely expensive and sophisticated armaments coming from?
2) Who is training the insurgents in their use?
Randolph Fritz
My guess is Arabia or Pakistan as the source of the weapons and training; the expense points towards wealth, perhaps the wealthy Islamic radicals of Arabia, or perhaps an enemy government with a grudge.
Tim F
The Soviets began to lose Afghanistan in earnest when the resistance got skilled at shooting down their helicopters.
This may bave simply been a “lucky” AK round that found its way to a fuel line; the earlier helo I believe crashed in a sandstorm and wasn’t under fire at the time. If the insurgents have received training and SAMs then there’s no shortage of suspects as to where they got it. Baathist remnants in Iraq have gear up to their eyeballs, expertise and an incentive to keep the US distracted in Afghanistan. GOd knows Iran would be pleased to irritate us just so long as it can’t be easily traced back to them. Chechnya. Much of the Pakistani army remains sympathetic to the Taliban. Not sure whether the Saudis have any particular sympathy for the Taliban although the UBL connection could bring in some cash.
Anyhow, if this is SAM activity then we need to get this shit under control fast. A fast, easy solution might be to have an armed Predator escort important helicopter insertions. Make launching a SAM at our helos a suicide mission.
Decided Fence Sitter
NPR, gasp I know, reported it as a lucky RPG hit. And those things are a dime a dozen apparently.
p.lukasiak
What worries me is that this is the second helicopter brought down in as many days.
actually, its the same helicopter. (there was another copter crash earlier this year). Its just that its taken over 36 hours from the time the crash was first reported yesterday, and the time it was announced that the bodies were found (and the original stories said there were 17 on board—apparently one person missed the flight).
There is something “wrong” with this story….
What is most disturbing about this story is that it appears to have taken 20 hours or more for US troops to get to the crash site. That is way too long to leave possible survivors at the mercy of the elements— and the enemy (The Pentagon is claiming that all sixteen died as a result of the crash, not because of a firefight afterwards).
And the copter full of fighters had been dispatched to aid troops on the ground involved in a ground operation. Because rescue was reportedly hampered by bad weather, this strongly suggests that the troops on ground were in trouble, and the helicopter was dispatched in bad weather because these troops were in trouble — and the Pentagon still won’t talk about what happened to them….
Jeff
Twice a week, my wife and I play “baby swap” with another couple. Nancy takes care of my daughter and her daughter for half the day, and I come home early to take care of them for the remainder, so she can go to work.
Nancy was on the phone with a mutual friend on Tuesday — we’ll call her “M.” We all have children about the same age. Just as a side note, we’re all liberal Northeastern types. During the election, M’s 12-month-old son wore a shirt that said, “I’m already smarter than the president.” I think every one of us put in some time for the Kerry campaign.
During the call, M’s call waiting beeped. She was gone for quite some time. When she came back, she apologized and choked over the phone to Nancy that she had to go. Her brother had been on that copter, and he was dead.
Just a reminder that it’s not just Red-staters who have family overseas, and that it’s not just Republicans who love, care and respect the incredible work our armed forces does every day. Opposing the war doesn’t mean that one wishes harm on those who fighting. Opposing this president doesn’t mean that one opposes America.
I wish more people could see that.