Blow to US in Afghanistan

2005-07-01 08:17

Kabul - A "lucky shot" by a rocket propelled grenade is believed to have brought down a United States military helicopter, killing 16 servicemen in the first attack of its kind in Afghanistan, a US general said on Thursday.

"This is the first helicopter that we've had shot down in Afghanistan," Lieutenant General James Conway, director of operations for the joint chiefs of staff, told a Defence Department briefing.

He confirmed that the military believed a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) hit the Chinook which crashed on Tuesday in rugged terrain west of Asadabad, a town in the insurgency-plagued eastern province of Kunar.

"But indications are that it was an RPG, which is a pretty lucky shot, honestly, against a moving helicopter. There is no indication that there are more sophisticated ground-to-air systems that are involved."

Conway said 16 bodies had been retrieved from the site.

The Taliban militia has claimed that its fighters shot down the helicopter.

"Coalition forces have confirmed that all 16 service members on board the MH-47 helicopter that crashed June 28 died in the crash. There were 16 people on board, not 17 as previously reported," Lieutenant Cindy Moore, a military spokesperson in Kabul, said in a statement.

Pentagon spokesperson Larry DiRita said Special Forces personnel were on board the helicopter which was taking troops to reinforce the US military on the ground.

Some media reports have said elite US Navy SEALS were aboard.

Conway said the rescue mission was still going on and that military authorities were unable to give details of any other casualties on the ground.

The BBC reported that several soldiers were unaccounted for, some of them soldiers who were fighting on the ground.

It is the biggest toll for US forces from a single incident in Afghanistan since they entered the country to topple the Taliban nearly four years ago.

Earlier the US military in Kabul said rescuers, after being hampered by mountain terrain and rebels, had finally reached the wreckage.

The incident came amid an escalating insurgency by the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban ahead of Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary and legislative elections in September.

More than 500 people, most of them militants, have died since the Taliban launched the offensive at the beginning of the year.

Coalition forces flying missions above Afghanistan's difficult, rugged terrain have suffered nine helicopter crashes since the end of 2001, including Tuesday's, but this was the first attributed to insurgent fire.

- AFP