chinook
© Peter Parks/AFP/GettyFile photo of a US army Chinook helicopter. One from the NATO-led foreign force in Afghanistan crashed during an anti-Taliban operation on Saturday.


The ruthless Taliban terrorists who shot down a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan - killing 30 Americans - have been hunted down and killed, officials said Wednesday.

Ten Taliban insurgents, including one believed to have fired the rocket-propelled grenade that took down a chopper loaded with elite troops, were obliterated in an airstrike by coalition forces.

"This does not ease our loss," Marine Corps Gen. John Allen said in announcing the successful strike. "But we must and we will continue to relentlessly pursue the enemy."

The commandoes were being ferried in to help an Army Ranger unit pinned down in a Tangi Valley firefight Saturday as they sought to kill a high-ranking Taliban commander.

But as the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopter rumbled into the valley, it was hit by the grenade and crashed, killing all onboard.

Among the dead were 22 elite Navy SEALs, three Air Force airmen, a five-member Army air crew and a military dog, along with seven Afghan commandos and a civilian Afghan interpreter.

Six militants were killed in the gun battle, but the insurgent leader managed to escape, officials said.

After gathering key tips from locals, NATO forces conducted "an exhaustive manhunt," and tracked the insurgents early Monday morning to a wooded area in nearby Chak district.

"After making sure no civilians were in the area, the force called for the airstrike," the Pentagon explained in a press release.

Allen said a NATO F-16 then swooped in and turned the area into a raging inferno

In addition to the unidentified triggerman, the strike also killed terrorist honcho Mullah Mohibullah who officials described as a "key facilitator" in a Taliban attack cell.

The bloodthirsty band of 12 hardened fighters included potential suicide bombers and had been active in highly unstable Wardak Province..



Comment: Yawn! Sure sounds like a poorly written Hollywood movie script.


Allen said while an investigation into what caused the deadly attack was being launched, the decision to send the crack squad of troops was the right one.

"We've run more than a couple of thousand of these night operations over the last year, and this is the only occasion where this has occurred," he said.

The investigation - to be headed by Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt, commander of the 101st Airborne Division - comes as the remains of the dead troops were returned Tuesday to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

There they were met by 250 family members and a solemn President Obama in a private gathering, out-of-sight of the media.

After days of debate and delay, the Pentagon said Wednesday that it will finally release the names of all those killed.

The release had been in question because the dead were mostly covert special operations forces from the Navy and Air Force.

Though some of their names have made public by loved ones, the Special Operations Command had asked the Pentagon not to release them, arguing it was a security risk.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta himself had made the final decision and that the names should be made public within 24 hours.