US suffers worst loss of life in Afghan war when helicopter crash kills 38

Seven Afghan and 31 Special Forces soldiers die after insurgents reportedly shoot down Chinook with rocket The United States suffered its worst loss of life of the nearly 10-year war in Afghanistan last night when a helicopter carrying 31 elite Special Forces soldiers crashed in the east of the country. Both the Taliban, via a spokesman reached by telephone, and Afghan officials in Wardak province, to the west of Kabul, said insurgents had successfully shot down the huge Chinook helicoter with a rocket. Publicly Nato would only confirm that “there was enemy activity in the area” and that the US-led alliance was still trying to work out what happened. US Air Force Captain Justin Brockhoff, a Nato spokesman, said: “We are in the process of accessing the facts.” However, a western official did give a figure of 37 people on board, who were all killed. Afghan president Hamid Karzai, in a statement of condolence, said 31 were US Special Forces, while another seven were members of the Afghan National Army (ANA). It is very unusual for Nato deaths from a single incident to reach double figures. The previous most deadly day for foreign troops was in June 2005 when 16 US soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket hit a Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar. The crash happened at 3am when the helicopter was hovering over the town of Tangi Joi Zareen in the district of Saidabad, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Nato attacked a house in the district where insurgent fighters were gathering. He said eight insurgents also died in the fighting last night. Special Forces from many nations, including the UK, conduct up to half a dozen such operations every night, usually targeting mid-level insurgent commanders whose whereabouts is pinpointed by high-tech intelligence gathering teams. The successful downing of a helicopter, quite apart from the massive loss of life, will alarm war planners who rely heavily on Nato’s air superiority in the fight against the Taliban. They will want to discover whether the aircraft was downed by a lucky shot from rocket propelled grenade, a highly inaccurate weapon, or something more sophisticated. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s was greatly hindered by portable “Stinger” missile systems provided by the US and the far less effective “Blowpipe” provided by the UK. Nato forces have intercepted so-called “Manpads”, or “man-portable air defence systems”, illegally smuggled from Iran and there have been recorded incidents when they have been used. Classified military reports released by Wikileaks last year showed that the US military covered up a reported surface-to-air missile that shot down a Chinook helicopter over Helmand that killed seven soldiers. Afghanistan US military United States Nato Jon Boone guardian.co.uk

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