WASHINGTON/KABUL, 1 July 2005 — US forces have recovered all 16 troops, including some Special Forces, who died when a US military helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, a top US general said yesterday.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the joint chiefs of staff, told a Defense Department briefing that 16 bodies had been retrieved from the site where the Chinook crashed Tuesday after coming under fire west of Asadabad, a town in the insurgency-plagued eastern province of Kunar.
The Taleban militia has claimed that its fighters shot down the helicopter. Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said Special Forces personnel were on board and that the helicopter was taking troops to reinforce the US military on the ground. Some media reports said US Navy SEALS were on the helicopter.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai meanwhile met with Gen. James Jones, the supreme allied commander of NATO, for talks in Kabul yesterday focusing on NATO’s contribution to security in Afghanistan’s forthcoming parliamentary elections, a presidential statement said. Karzai discussed NATO’s expansion to the west and south of Afghanistan, the gradual unification of international force command in Afghanistan and NATO’s role in election security.
