Updated
The loss of about two dozen elite commandos in a helicopter believed to be downed by the Taliban has dealt a major blow to US special forces, a key element in the strategy to wind down the war in Afghanistan.
The US military is trying to confirm whether insurgents shot down the Chinook transport helicopter which crashed with the loss of 38 people, most of them Americans.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility, saying its fighters had shot down the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade during a firefight south-west of the capital, Kabul.
Thirty of those killed were US troops - some from the Navy's special forces SEAL Team 6, the 300-strong unit which carried out the raid that killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May.
None of those who took part in the bin Laden raid were believed to be among the casualties.
A navy special forces member interviewed by the Navy Times expressed "shock and disbelief," saying: "There's no precedent for this. It's the worst day in our history by a mile."
Seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter were also killed in the attack, the deadliest for the NATO-led coalition since the invasion to oust the Islamist Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
CNN said the troops in the chopper were part of a "quick reaction force", charged with swooping in to back ground troops under attack and in trouble.
Such units are often deployed on special forces operations and were present during the bin Laden raid, indicating the operation late on Friday was aimed at an important target.
The Pentagon will struggle to replace such a large number of commandos, given that it takes five years to train them, according to Captain Kenneth Klothe, a special forces expert at the National Defence University (NDU).
US special operations forces have played an increasingly central role in the war, with thousands of members of elite units carrying out scores of commando operations, usually at night, to capture or kill senior Taliban fighters.
The low-profile units and surgical strikes are part of NATO's strategy of battling the Taliban while trying to minimise the impact of the war on the local population in order to win hearts and minds.
In the second half of 2010 some 7,000 operations, not all carried out by special forces, led to the killing of 2,000 insurgents and the capture of 4,000, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The quickening pace of elite operations - now reportedly carried out in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia - had raised concerns even before the helicopter crash.
"The problem is that it's very difficult to grow special forces overnight," Admiral William McRaven, the new commander of US special forces, said in June at a Senate confirmation hearing.
"One of the greatest challenges I think we will have for the future is there will be a greater demand on SOF (special operations forces)," he said.
The crash comes just two weeks after foreign troops began a security handover to Afghan forces.
AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment