WASHINGTON: The Taliban insurgents who shot down a US helicopter in Afghanistan, leaving 30 American troops dead, have been hunted down and killed in an air strike, a US commander said Wednesday.
General John Allen, the new chief of US-led forces in Afghanistan, said that “at approximately midnight on 8 August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack” in a bombing raid by an F-16 fighter jet.
Insurgents had shot down a Chinook helicopter on Friday in the remote Tangi Valley in Wardak province, killing 30 American troops on board — including 25 elite special forces — in the deadliest incident of the war for Nato.
Allen called the downing of the chopper southwest of Kabul a “tragic incident” but portrayed the retaliatory strike against the insurgents as proof that the United States would press ahead with the war.
“This does not ease our loss, but we must and we will continue to relentlessly pursue the enemy,” said Allen, speaking to reporters via video link from Kabul.
“We will face the obstacles ahead with a steadfast determination to prevail.” The helicopter attack came amid waning public support for the war and growing anxiety in Congress about the cost of a conflict that has dragged on since 2001.
