US soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, secure the area after exiting a Chinook helicopter in Apghanistan. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)KABUL, Afghanistan – The 30 U.S. troops killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down Saturday in western Afghanistan – many of them Navy SEALs – were fighting a war rarely talked about.
They were not battling Afghanistan’s ingrained corruption or building new roads or crafting nascent local governments. They were part of a group of elite troops that operate stealthily in the night and go after the U.S.’ most wanted targets of the war.
It was the worst single-day toll for American forces in Afghanistan since U.S. troops entered that country nearly 10 years ago, and one of the largest tolls in a single incident of either the Afghan war or the fighting in Iraq. Seven Afghan troops also died in the crash. An interpreter also was killed; in all 38 people and a SEAL dog died in the crash.
The Associated Press reported that some of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the same unit that provided the troops for the May 2 raid that killed al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, but that could not be verified independently. The Pentagon released no information on the dead as officials worked through notifying 30 families of their losses.
Shot down