U.S. says unable to find team after Afghan crash

[sunny]

Has anyone else heard about this? I've been a bit behind in the news, but I was surprised to see this headline.

msnbc.com


U.S. says unable to find team after Afghan crash
Ill-fated helicopter was sent to support missing reconnaissance group

Updated: 4:47 a.m. ET July 1, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. forces remain unable to locate a small U.S. reconnaissance team that a Special Forces unit was going to support when their helicopter was shot down, killing all 16 troops aboard, the U.S. military said on Friday.

While U.S. forces do not know the whereabouts of the team, they have no reason to believe that its members, last heard of shortly before Tuesday afternoon’s crash, had been killed or captured, U.S. spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts said.

Yonts said he could “not confirm or deny” a claim by Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi that the insurgents executed seven U.S. “spies” before the MH-47 helicopter was shot down in Kunar province bordering Pakistan.

“We do not have eyes on them right now, but there is no reason to believe that they are dead. If there was proof that they were killed they would be classified as killed,” he said.

Yonts said the ill-fated helicopter was sent in after the reconnaissance team requested support, but it was not at the location when the aircraft arrived.

He said there was no evidence, such as blood, to indicate team members had been killed, or to suggest they had been captured by al-Qaida insurgents, whom the military has said it is hunting in Kunar.

Yonts said he could not say how many soldiers were in the team. “It was small reconnaissance team with a small number of members.”

He said a major anti-insurgent operation codenamed “Redwing” was continuing in Kunar. It included efforts to locate the missing team and complete recovery and investigation operations at the crash site.

Biggest combat blow
The loss of the twin-rotor Chinook was the biggest single combat blow to U.S. forces since their overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and came amid stepped-up insurgent activity since March in which another 14 U.S. troops have died in hostile action.

The military identified the troops killed in Tuesday’s crash as eight from airborne special forces units and eight Navy Seal commandos.

Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the U.S. military’s Joint Staff, told a Pentagon news briefing on Thursday an undisclosed number of ground troops were “unaccounted for” -- a terminology that can encompass soldiers killed in action whose bodies have not been recovered or troops still alive.

He said none had been classified “missing”, a military definition including troops who may be captured or surrounded.

On Thursday, the British Broadcasting Corp quoted U.S. military officials as saying that 13 bodies bodies had been recovered from the crash site but that seven servicemen, including some who had been fighting on the ground, were unaccounted for.

The report said some may have been captured.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, whose information has often been unreliable, said the guerrillas shot down the helicopter with “a new type of weapon” he did not describe.

Conway said the pilots of a second U.S. aircraft had reported seeing a rocket-propelled grenade fired by insurgents at the helicopter and there was no indication a more sophisticated ground-to-air system was involved.

General Aminullah Patyani, the Afghan army commander for the east of the country, said the helicopter crashed in the Dar-e-Paich area about 19 miles northwest of Asadabad. He said he had no information about U.S. troops being captured.

The U.S. military said work at the crash site had been hampered by the presence of militants in the area, cloudy weather and mountainous, heavily wooded terrain.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Brent]

I knew the team was missing... they had called for backup and the Chinook that was shot down(apparently) was the backup.

[USCG_Hurricane_Watcher]

I caught wind of this yesterday at work...unfortunately, no one's seen them - from what I gather, it's a spec ops team oviously well-versed in evasion. I'd give it a few days to see if they turn up...

[Janice]

That is really strange. How can they loose all that? I saw on television that the families have been notified.

[sunny]

The Taliban is claiming to be holding an American Soldier.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic ... HAN-DC.XML

[Janice]

I believe the government knows a lot more than they are telling us. A crash site and all those people just cannot disappear that fast.

[Terry]

Unfortunately, things are heating up in Afganistan as the weather warms up.

The US gov't definitely knows more as Dirita indicated in his press conference today. But to protect our soldiers, I hope we don't spill the beans.

It has been since Tuesday that they were last heard from, I think. Let's all hope that these soldiers are found safe soon!

[stormie_skies]

I sure hope they turn up ....their poor families must be so upset....