Men from Osama raid team among 38 killed

Afghan Crash * Taliban bring down chopper carrying American troops.

In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan,insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday,killing 31 Americans and 7 Afghan commandos on board,American and Afghan officials said. American officials said later on Saturday that 22 of the dead were members of the Navy SEALs unit that killed wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden,along with other American servicemembers and the Afghan unit.

The Associated Press,quoting one current and one former US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because families were still being informed,reported that the troops from SEAL Team Six were flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. None of those killed were part of the SEALs mission that killed Osama,but they were from the same unit as the Osama team.

The AP quoted one source as saying the team was thought to include 22 SEALs,three Air Force air controllers,seven Afghan Army troops,a dog,his handler,a civilian interpreter and helicopter crew.

The helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province to the west of Kabul,one coalition official said,though others said the exact weapon remained in question.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack,which came as American and NATO forces begin a drawdown of troops. It occurred after a night raid,a tool that has been praised by American commanders as one of the most effective in the recent military offensive,though the raids have been criticised by Afghan officials and civilians.

US President Barack Obama offered his condolences and prayers to the families of the Americans and Afghans who died in the attack. Their death is a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifice made by the men and women of our military and their families, Obama said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also offered his condolences.

The attack shows how deeply entrenched the insurgency remains even far from its main strongholds in southern Afghanistan and along the Afghan-Pakistani border in the east. US soldiers had recently turned over the sole combat outpost in the Tangi Valley to Afghans.

Story continues below this ad

General Abdul Qayum Baqizoy,the police chief of Wardak,said the attack occurred around 1 am on Saturday after an assault on a Taliban compound in the village of Jaw-e-Mekh Zareen in the Tangi Valley. The fighting lasted at least two hours,the general said.

A Taliban spokesman,Zabiullah Mujahid,confirmed that insurgents had been gathering at the compound,adding that eight of them had been killed in the fighting.

The Tangi Valley runs along the border between Wardak and Logar Province,an area where security has worsened over the past two years,bringing the insurgency closer to Kabul. It is one of the inaccessible areas that have become havens for insurgents,according to operations and intelligence officers with the Fourth Brigade Combat Team,10th Mountain Division,which patrols the area. The mountainous region,with its steeply pitched hillsides and arid shale,traversed by small footpaths,has long been an area that the Taliban have used to move between Logar and Wardak,government officials said.