Thirty-one American soldiers have been killed as insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook transport helicopter early Saturday. That one incident made it the deadliest day for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in 2001.
The service members were on a night-raid mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province when a rocket-propelled grenade, a coalition officer said, brought down their helicopter.
The official said the military does “not have any indication that it was anything other than militant fire that brought the helicopter down.
Of the thirty-one soldiers killed about twenty of them were Navy SEALS, five were Army air crew, and several U.S. airmen. Seven Afghan troops and one interpreter also died when the helicopter went down.
“The numbers are high,” said one official. “It’s a big loss.”
The SEALS were part of the SEAL Team Six, the unit that carried out the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. However, none of those killed in the crash were members of the actual SEALs mission that killed bin Laden.
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